Dettmer News

Gabe's Cub Scout Fundraiser

2009-10-16T18:31:00.001-04:00

Hey Everyone, I meant to get this out sooner, but kept forgetting and now my scanner won't work, so I'm just going to type up the descriptions. Anyway, Gabe is selling popcorn as a fundraiser for cub scouts. All orders and money must be turned in by THIS THURSDAY Oct. 22. If you can't, or don't want to order, it's no big deal, I just thought I'd put it out there for everyone. If you do want to order, please let me know what you want before Thursday, and get your payment in the mail to me as soon as possible! Thanks!!

Item B - 3 way 100th anniversary premium tin - a sampling of Supreme Caramel with nuts, Chocolatey Caramel Corn, and Butter Toffee Caramel Corn $40

Item P - 3 way Cheesey Tin - Sampling of White and Yellow Cheddar Cheese Corn, along with Zesty Cheesy
Salsa $30

Item C - 24 pack Movie Theater Extra Butter Microwave Popcorn $25

Item D - 24 pack Variety Pack Microwave Popcorn- 6 Movie Theater Extra Butter, 6 94% Fat Free Butter, 6 Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn, and 6 White Cheddar Cheese $25

Item Z - Popcorn for the Troops - $25 worth of popcorn sent to military personnel $25

Item E - Supreme Caramel Crunch with Almonds, Pecans, and Cashews- Tin of buttery sweet caramel corn with whole and crushed nuts $20

Item F - Chocolatey Caramel Corn - Caramel corn covered with rich chocolate $20

Item S - 20 pack snack size 94% fat free microwave popcorn $20

Item U - $20 Magazine Voucher - Vouchers are redeemable for new or renewal subscription(s) for magazine chosen $20

Item X - Classic Trail Mix - Includes peanuts, cranberries, raisins, chocolate candies and cashews $20

Item G - 15 pack Extra Buttery Roasted Summer Corn Microwave Popcorn $15

Item J - 14 pack Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn Microwave Popcorn $15

Item L - Caramel Popcorn in collectible tin $10

Item O - 3lb. Popping Pail - Original gourmet popping corn ready to pop packed in reusable plastic pail. $10

Item T - $10 Magazine Voucher - Vouchers are redeemable for new or renewal subscription(s) for magazine chosen $10

Thanks Again!

Missy

Updates

2009-09-14T08:49:00.005-04:00

Well, I apologize for being away from here so long. Life has just kept us very busy. Plus, I figure that most of you that read this, probably follow me on Facebook too, which I keep much more updated. But to sum up the last month or so.... Gabe has recovered well from his surgery, no lasting complications. He has started school, and really likes first grade so far. He's having some trouble getting through the afternoons, so we will probably be talking to the pediatrician about possibly increasing/changing his meds. He's playing soccer and was supposed to have his first game this last weekend, but got rained out, so it will be this Saturday coming up instead. He's also just started cub scouts. He's only had one meeting, but so far, he's very excited about it. Kylie has been doing very well, except for the fact that she is sick right now. She was running a fever of about 103 all weekend, so yesterday I took her to the pediatrics after hours clinic, and she has got a bad case on tonsillitis. They were very surprised that the strep test came back negative, but she's definitely got some kind of infection. So she's on a 10 day course of Augmentin...yeah! And I have the day off work today, since she can't go to daycare, and I'm getting the sinking feeling we might be home tomorrow too. As of now her temp is still around 102. But for the most part she is acting OK and playing, just not eating very well. We took the kids to the Maryland Sate Fair last weekend, and they had a really good time. Gabe waited all night, but finally got on this really cool helicopter ride, and loved it! Kylie really liked riding the horses on the carousel! I don't think there's much else to share right now! Here's a few pictures!

Gabe and the goats!

Kylie looking at some of the animals!

Kylie really liked the animals!

Gabe was very excited about getting on this Nascar ride!
Gabe and Kylie rode the 4 wheeler ride together, and both loved it!

Kylie really liked the carousel!

This is Gabe on the helicopter ride!

Gabe just being silly!

And of course we had to get pictures of both the kids on the tractors!

Gabe's Surgery

2009-07-30T14:57:00.001-04:00

Gabe came through his surgery well. There was a lot of adhesions they had to get through before they could do the circumcision, and a lot of scar tissue when they went in the groin to position the testicle, but everything went really well. He's was complaining a lot about pain after he woke up, so they gave him a couple of doses of pain med's via his IV in the hospital, and gave us a script for Tylenol with Codeine for at home. He's doing better now. He's pretty unsteady on his feet still for the anesthesia, but he's in a much better mood. He's eating a little toast right now, to see how his belly feels, and he's laying on the couch playing video games. He'll get to do a lot of that for a while. So, over all, he did really well. Now we just have to keep him clean and dry and calm for a week....yeah, that should be a piece of cake.....

Fun Week..lots of pictures!

2009-07-10T23:16:00.006-04:00

The kids had a fun week at daycare this week. Monday we had a petting zoo come to the daycare. They brought chickens, bunnies, a goat, and a llama, and had pony rides. I didn't get out there right away, but was told that Kylie petted all the animals. She definitely did not want to go on the pony ride at first, but eventually I managed to get her on with Gabe, as long as I held on to her. She rode the pony all around the playground, telling everyone "Look at me! I riding Pony!" Gabe was very proud that he got her to ride with him! Today we had a girl from Wildlife Adventures come to the center, and she brought a bunny, hedgehog, turtle, toad, tarantula, and 2 snakes - a python and a corn snake. Kylie petted everything but the hedgehog and the tarantula, and she walked up front to see the tarantula, just didn't want to touch it. She, oddly enough, REALLY liked the snakes! She kept following the girl around the room so she could touch it! She absolutely would not hold it or put it around her neck though! The only animal that Gabe didn't pet was the tarantula. I'm afraid I've given him my fear of spiders. Enjoy the pictures!

This is Kylie NOT wanting to ride the pony!

Cowboy Gabe goes for a ride!

This is the really huge bunny they had. He weighed 35lbs!

This is the llama, whose name was Dolly..get it? Dali Lama?

This is Gabe and Kylie when we finally got her on the pony!

Gabe petting the hedgehog!

Kylie very definitely NOT wanting to pet the hedgehog!

For those of you who know me, NO, I did NOT get close enough to a tarantula to take this picture. I gave my camera to another teacher and ran from the room!

Kylie petting the python...go figure!

Gabe with the corn snake around his neck!

Yes, that's me with a snake around my neck, and yes, my daughter, who is usually afraid of all animals, except for this week, is petting the snake, of her own free will!

Gabriel

2009-07-02T19:12:00.003-04:00

We took Gabriel to see the urologist on Wednesday. He took a look at him and said that he could definitely "clean up" his circumcision...remove adhesions and possibly some extra skin to make thing look good and everything. He also discovered that his left testicle has not descended, so he's going to have to go in and move it down and stitch it into place. Yeah! So Gabe will be out of school/daycare for 7-10 days recovery. The surgery is scheduled for July 30 at St. Joseph's Medical Center. The is yet to be determined. Just wanted to update everyone as to what was going on...

Kylie

2009-06-24T12:17:00.002-04:00

Kylie came through great this morning. She was an angel both going under and coming out of the anesthesia...unlike her older brother! The only problem we had was that she threw up a couple times, but after my experiences with Gabe I was kinda expecting that. She slept the whole way home. I was hoping she'd stay asleep so I could take a nap, because I've been up with her since 3:30 this morning, when she woke up wanting milk, and never went back to sleep because I wouldn't give it to her. But of course, as soon as we were in the house she was wide awake. She'd had a little lunch and her tummy has settled down, and she being her normal self now. I'm still hoping to try and get a nap in this afternoon, that is if Paul ever gets up off the couch where HE'S taking a nap! Gabe was also very well behaved while he was with us at the surgery center this morning. I'm very proud of him!

Tomorrow...

2009-06-23T18:07:00.003-04:00

Kylie's surgery for her tubes is scheduled for 8:30 tomorrow morning. We have to be at the surgery center at 7:30. Unfortunately that means that we have to take Gabe with us, because we can't drop him off at daycare and get to the surgery center in time. UGH...I hope he behaves! I'll post tomorrow after we get home and let you all know how she's doing!

Update

2009-06-18T21:29:00.003-04:00

Sorry I've been so out of the loop lately, things have just been crazy busy. Gabe has finished lacrosse and is playing baseball. He's really good! He still needs to work on catching, but he's good at throwing, and he's pretty good at hitting. He hasn't had to use the tee at all, he always hits off the coach's pitch. He's finished with school for the year, so mornings have gotten just a teeny tiny bit easier. We're still on the same time schedule, but I don't worry about whether or not he eats breakfast before we leave, because he'll get breakfast at daycare too. So I just have to get him dressed. And lately Kylie has been waking up early, and she likes to go in and wake up Gabey too, so he's up a little earlier than before some days. He's still not listening very well, and has a major attitude with me. I have no idea what to do about that.
Paul has been away at AT in Va for the last 2 weeks, but will be home on Saturday. He'll be home for 2 weeks before he leaves for school again. This time in Arkansas. Yeah...There's not too much else to say about him right now.
Kylie is doing pretty good. She has made MAJOR improvements in the sleeping department. Now we read a book and rock while she drinks her milk, then say our goodnights and I put her in bed and walk out. That's it. She almost never gets out of bed. No crying, no nothing.... She is still waking up during the night for milk, but I just give it to her and go back to bed. The hard part is to stay awake long enough to get it back after she's done with it. I usually fall back asleep before I remember to get it and it just lays in her bed all night....oh well, hasn't hurt her yet. She is also going on Wednesday to have tubes put in her ears. We hit 6 ear infections in 6 and a half months so the doc said it was time. We went today for her pre-op physical and blood work. Usually when we go to the doctor's she cries from the time we walk into the room till the time we walk out. Today, she was all laughter and giggles through the whole check up...even when they checked her ears! And then we went for the blood work. The last time she had blood work done I made Paul take her because I didn't think I could hold her down, and she was hysterical. She even flipped out when she was with me when I had blood work done. Today she was an angel. No crying, no screaming, no nothing. Didn't even flinch. I don't know if it's because we went to a different lab or what, but I was SO proud of my brave little girl.
There's not much else to tell. I've been missing alot of time from work lately with doctor's appointments, and all three of us had the stomach flu last week, at different times, so I missed a few days there too. I hope things calm down soon. Right now, I just can't wait till fall when I cut back my hours at work. I'll be getting off at 3:20 to pick Gabe up from school, and that will be the end of my day, instead of working till 5. YEAH! I'm hoping that I can still go in at 8:30, but they might make me start going in at 7 which would suck. I DO NOT like to get up early....

Kylie's 2nd Birthday Party

2009-05-25T23:23:00.007-04:00

Well, today was Kylie's 2nd Birthday Party. She had a great day! we had nice weather and the kids got to spent all afternoon playing outside..most of it on the 4 wheelers for the boys. And we had our first real 4 wheeler accident. Josh and Jason were racing and Josh got a little too close as he went around the pine tree, and we think he caught his wheel against Jason's and the bike tipped, and he rolled off, and then the bike rolled over him! We were all in shock, but he was ok, no real injuries, although he had a few tire tracks on him...LOL He's a tough one though and got right back on, no problems! Kylie LOVED playing outside with everyone, and she was so excited that it was her party day. We did an Abby Cadabby theme, and she just kept going around and pointing at everything and saying Abby Dabby, Abby Dabby...and of course, she had her own pair of wings.... :) She got lots of great presents!!! Clothes and dress up stuff, and baby dolls, and accessories and all kinds of fun girly stuff! All in all it was a great day! Enjoy the pictures!!

Kylie in her Birthday Girl Dress!

...and her Abby Cadabby Wings!

Kylie and Abby!

Wearing her new tutu from MomMom and PopPop

And dress up shoes!

Abby Cadabby cake...and no, I didn't make this one!

Blowing out the candles...

Little Mommy pushing her baby stroller, watching the action outside!

Fun Times...

2009-05-21T22:19:00.003-04:00

This is the kids of stuff that happens when Daddy's away..... Mommy puts the kids and the table with dinner, and goes to put laundry away while the kids are occupied and out of the way. About 5 minutes later, this is what I find....

the video is a little long, but well worth it. The funniest parts are at the end!

Easter

2009-04-13T21:36:00.013-04:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, I know we did. It was a busy day. The kids got up early and found their baskets hidden by the Easter Bunny, then we had some breakfast and headed outside to find all the eggs that the Easter Bunny hid in the yard. The kids had a blast finding all the eggs. Then we headed to MomMom and PopPop's house for more baskets and egg hunting. The kids all played outside for a while, blowing bubbles. Then off to Aunt Wendy's house for even more baskets and a wonderful dinner! We finished off the day at MeMaw's house, where both kids had a blast playing, as usual! Here's some pictures to highlight the day!!!

Here's Gabe and his Easter Basket

And here's Kylie with hers

Kylie in her pretty pink dress

Ok, you'd think the adult could manage to look at the camera at the right time!

This is Kylie trying to blow Abby's pinwheel...

Hunting Eggs at MomMom's house

Gabe was hunting too

Kylie making faces at Uncle Mike

This face was because the wind was blowing...

I spent a good 10 minutes trying to get a picture of Kylie and Abby together...I got lucky, they were both looking at the camera, cuz this was my one and only shot!

New Videos...

2009-04-10T23:45:00.003-04:00

New accomplishments....

Update on Kylie... And Paul and Gabe

2009-04-07T18:51:00.004-04:00

Kylie has now officially moved to the 2 year old room at the daycare. And, as she will tell you, she is a big girl now. She sleeps like an angel for them, eats so much better than she did for me, and has been sitting on the potty. Today, She PEED on the potty!!! YEAH BIG GIRL!!! Dare I hope the light at the end of the diaper tunnel is in sight? I know, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but a girl can hope huh? She's doing very well with the transition, and is not upset at all about being away from me. When they come over for diaper changes, she is ready to leave as soon as she's done with a "bye Mom, see you later!". We had a bit of a tragedy last night though. When it was time to go home, we couldn't find puppy. And most of you know how important puppy is. We searched for over an hour, tore every room in the center apart, looked in cabinets, piles of toys, on all the cots, in trash cans.... I eve looked in the microwave, just in case. No luck. We finally gave up and headed home. On a whim, I decided to stop by the Hallmark store where I got puppy. They haven't had any there every time I've stopped over the last several months. Last night they had 4, so we got a new puppy. She looked at him kind of funny at first, because he was so new looking, but took to him OK. We found the old puppy today at nap time, buried beneath a blanket on someone else's cot. At least now we have a back up. She gave me a horrible time going to bed last night. She's been getting harder and harder to get to sleep and taking longer, but last night took the crown. It took me an hour and a half to get her to bed. Tonight is Daddy's turn.
Speaking of Daddy....he was at Walter Reed again today, and they changed his medicine again. His blood pressure was high today so they put him on something for that, as well as helping his headaches. We'll see how it works.
Gabe is being Gabe. He's giving me hell in the mornings trying to get ready for school. It's taking him 45 minutes or more to get dressed, because she's so busy playing around. Then he doesn't have time to eat. It has not been fun in our house lately. He's really trying my patience. He's also bee talking back alot lately and arguing with me over EVERYTHING!!!!! It's really ticking me off, and he's been getting in major trouble for it too. I think that's all out news for now!

The Best Birthday Present...

2009-03-28T19:46:00.003-04:00

Ever since Kylie heard thie other kids at daycare sing me Happy Birthday yesterday, I've been ramdomly hearing this...

Again...

2009-03-23T20:44:00.002-04:00

Well, Kylie was sick over the weekend, running a fever and not sleeping well. So we went to the doctor's again today. It's another ear infection...BIG SURPRISE! I'm really getting tired of ear infections. I'm hoping that they are just another symptom of teething and when she finally stops teething, the ear infections will stop. She's been cutting teeth for the last 2 months or more, but I think she's almost done. 2 od her last 4 teeth are just starting to cut through the gum. I hope the last 2 won't be far behind, and then we can put these ear infections behind us. If not, then she'll probably end up with tubes, just like Gabe did. So we're on a 10 day antibiotic, yeah. I hate trying to fight her to get her to take the medicine. And I REALLY hate having to remember to take the medicine back and forth to daycare. But, oh well. Gabe is doing pretty good. He went to his first outdoor practice Saturday and Paul said he did a really good job. They were doing defensive drills and he scored 4 goals! He really seems to enjoy lacrosse so far. And it's good for him to be getting more active. He needs an outlet for all that energy! Paul has seen the orthepedic surgeon and they have decided to do 2 months of physical therapy to se if that helps his foot before going to surgery. So, we'll wait and see. Nothing new for me to report, my life is the usual same old, same old.

First Day of Practice

2009-03-05T22:40:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was Gabe's first day of Lacrosse practice. He seemed to really enjoy it. And I was impressed. He didn't totally suck! He's never played before. Never played any kind of organized sport before, so this whole process is going to be interesting. But I think it's going to be good for him. He needs the activity and release for all his energy. And maybe it'll help him learn to focus a little bit better. Here's a few pics and vidoes from his first attempt at lacrosse.

Here he is warming up, running laps with his stick.

Here he's trying to scoop up the ball with his stick.

Yeah, he finally got it!

Busy Day

2009-02-27T21:51:00.002-05:00

Today was a bit of a crazy day for us. Paul took Kylie to the doctor's this morning because she's been running a fever for the last few days and has a REALLY nasty cough. And, no surprise to me, she has bronchitis. So she's on antibiotics again. And I started her on the nebulizer again too. We were struggling with her sleep issues. I had cracked down and refused to put her in bed with me in the middle of the night. And I stopped patting her back when she woke up until she went back to sleep. So she's been staying in her own bed, and going back to sleep without being patted, BUT she's been up for anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours, and I have to sit on the floor by the bed or she FLIPS OUT! I will eventually work on getting away from sitting next to her bed, but we're doing this by baby steps. Now with her being sick, I'll probably have to start all over, because everything is going to be all screwy. She's been in a very good mood for being sick though. Then this afternoon, Paul took Gabe to the dentist to have a cavity filled. The dentist told me he was a real trooper and did a great job. He said that when Gabe didn't flip out when he got the Novocaine, he knew he was going to be OK. Then I ended up at the dentist tonight because I had a really big piece of tooth break off while I was eating lunch today, so I had to go have that fixed.
Paul and I went to the parents meeting for lacrosse earlier this week, and Gabe's practices start next week. He and Daddy are going shopping for equipment tomorrow. He's VERY excited about playing. We also found out earlier this week that Paul is going to have to have surgery on his foot. He saw the orthopedic doctor and he said that the ligament didn't heal correctly, so it needs to be fixed. Paul leaves Tuesday for school for 2 weeks, so, once he gets back he'll talk to the doctor and figure everything out, so we'll know more in a few weeks. I think that's all the news from us for now.

At the Doctor's Again

2009-02-16T21:18:00.002-05:00

Well, Kylie FINALLY got over her stomach bug, then daddy got it. :( He's finally getting better too. But over the weekend, Kylie really started sleeping badly, waking up all night long. And her eyes have been yucky and swollen since Friday. So today we hit the doctor's again. The doc doesn't think she has pinkeye, but gave us a script for drops anyway, just to be safe. Her ears are clear, no infection. But she says that doesn't mean that they're not bothering her for some other reason, like maybe teething, which she is definitely still working on molars. So she gave me another script for drops to help with the pain. Her throat was red and irritated, so she checked for strep, but the rapid test came back negative. So she said that it's probably something viral, which means that it has to run it's course. yeah... hopefully things will get better soon. I really need some sleep.....

Definately sick

2009-02-07T00:13:00.002-05:00

Well, no doubt about it, Kylie has a stomach bug. She was throwing up all night Wednesday night. Luckily Paul was off Thursday, because neither one of us got much sleep Wednesday night. He slept through the morning, and I woke him up in time to go get Gabe from school. Kylie had stopped throwing up by then but was still having really bad diarrhea and had started running a fever. By the time the boys got back, she had fallen asleep on the couch watching Elmo. (Which is all we watched ALL DAY!) So I put her to bed, had a quick lunch and then I went to bed. She woke up around 2ish and Paul came in and got her, then she fell back asleep so he brought her back to bed. He fell asleep on the couch and woke up when she did around 4ish. He woke me up by 4:30 because her fever was going up - 103.1. All she would do the rest of the night was sit with me and watch Elmo. She wouldn't let me put her down. She started to fall asleep standing up in the tub a little after 8 so I got her back to bed. She slept better Thursday night. She woke up once or twice, but quickly went back to sleep. So we managed to get some sleep that night. Paul had to work today, so we got up and took Gabe to school, then ran a bunch of errands. She pretty much fell asleep every time she was in the car, so she slept off an on all morning. She still had a fever when she woke up this morning - 102.4. Once we got home, I fed both the kids, then put Kylie down for a late nap. She still slept for about 2 hours, but woke up in a better mood. The fever's going down, 100.4 last time I checked, so I think that's helping her feel better. She's gotten a little bit of her appetite back today, although the only thing she would eat all afternoon was goldfish. But she's still having really bad diarrhea. And of course won't eat any of the food the doc recommended to help with it - bananas, applesauce, rice, yogurt. So, I don't know what to do to help with the diarrhea. She went through 4 pairs of pj's between 1 and 8pm today. She seems to be sleeping pretty soundly, so hopefully, it'll be a quiet night. Paul has drill this weekend, and I have no plans, so we'll stay in jammies for the weekend and be bums and hope that the germs go away so I can go back to work on Monday. And hopefully none of the rest of us catch it either.

Kylie's sick again!

2009-02-04T21:12:00.003-05:00

I'm really getting tired of this girl getting sick! We were driving home from daycare tonight when she starts throwing up all over her carseat. So I get her home and in the tub, and try to get the carseat apart to clean it. When I go to check on her in the tub again, she's pooped in the tub, diarrhea. She's had diarrhea ALL NIGHT LONG! We've gone through at least a dozen diapers in 3 hours. Plus she pooped once more in the tub and once on the potty. It's never a lot at a time, but still. She's been crying all night and keeps telling us "pooped" my poor, poor baby. Don't know yet if we're going to be visiting the doctor or not. We'll have to wait and see...

He's Starting Young.....

2009-02-04T21:04:00.002-05:00

So, we're driving to school this morning and a commercial comes on the radio talking about drinking and driving. And Gabe says that Daddy drinks when he drives. So I explain that it's OK to drink things like soda and water while driving, and that the commercial was talking about not drinking beer or alcohol when you're driving. So then he says that Brenden drank a beer and Renee's house. So I started asking a few questions. "Where did he get it from?" "The basement." "Was it already opened or did Brenden open it?" "He opened it." "Did he drink it all?" "No, I had some too. It tasted good." Great! "Did anyone else have any?" "No." OK, so we have a talk about how beer is not for little boys, it's for grownup and it can make little boys sick. And If anything like this ever happens again, it's OK to go tell an adult, in fact, he SHOULD tell an adult. Looks like I'm going to have to keep a REAL close eye on him in years to come....

A Big Change In Our House

2009-02-01T16:46:00.006-05:00

Well, Paul and I have been fighting over putting up the bunkbeds in Gabe's room. He doesn't think Kylie is ready for a big bed. I think he just doesn't want to haul all the parts up from the basement and put them up. So, Yesterday afternoon, we switched her crib to the toddler bed. Now, I agree with him that she's not ready in the sense that she's going to fall out of the bed, but emotionally, and developmentally, I think she is ready. So, I put a big pad of blankets and pillows on the floor next to her bed, and put her to bed in the toddler bed last night. I had to sit with her till she was asleep, but I'd planned on that. when Paul went to bed a little before midnight, this is what we found....

yes, she is hanging upside down out of her bed. So I scooped her up and put back in bed right. She never woke up. When I went to bed around 1am this is what I found.....

So, again, I scooped up up and put her back to bed. And again, she didn't wake up. Two more times over the next hour I got up and slid her back across the bed when she got cloes to the edge. So, finally I decided that if I was going to get any sleep I needed to do something to make myself feel better, so I tied her crib bumper across the front of the bed as tight as I could make it. Not great, but it helped. I only woke up once when she started fussing because she'd pushed her head under the crib bumper. Again, I put her back and she went right back to sleep. So we'll see how she does tonight I guess, but it's a big step up in our world, and brings us one step closer to getting her out of our bedroom. Of course, once Gabe and Kylie are sharing a room that will bring a whole new set of challenges to be dealt with.

Kylie

2009-01-03T11:43:00.003-05:00

Well, Kylie is on antibiotics again for another ear infection. She wasn't sleeping well for a few nights, waking up screaming during the night. So, I followed my gut and called the doctor. And I was right. Again.... She did say that ear infections are common when they're teething, and she's still working ion those two molars....so...we'll see. Other than that, she is doing fantastic. She's finally started sleeping through the night, right before Christmas, and until the ear infection, slept through just about every night. YEAH!!!! I'm also kinda proud of myself, because I've stopped rocking her to sleep at night. I rock her while she drinks her milk, then she hops right of my lap and goes to stand next to her crib. I put her in and cover her up, then I'll pat her butt for a few minutes to settle her down, but leave before she's asleep. She'll usually start to fuss when I open the door but I just tell her love you and night night and go to sleep and walk out. Most night she'll go to sleep on her own. Occasionally she'll cry enough that I"ll go back in, but I still don't get her out a rock her, I just lay her down and pat her butt some more. That's a pretty big deal for me, so we're moving in the right direction. I think by the time she turns 2 we'll have her in Gabe's room. Then there'll be a whole new set of bedtime challenges!
She continues to amaze me with her language development. She's got so many words, it's unbelievable. And she's starting to use 2 and 3 word sentences..."Gabey, eat, now!" Yes, Gabe has become Gabey, and she in in hero worship mode right now. She calls him all day long and always wants to do whatever he's doing. It's kinda cute. She's also gotten very bossy, telling everyone what to do, especially Gabe and the other kids at daycare - come here, sit, go etc.... And she LOVES to draw!!! Anywhere and with anything!!! My walls are all kinds of decorated right now, yeah! We're trying to learn to color on paper, and nothing else.
She's getting so big, and so independent, she's growing up before my eyes! This time is going by so fast! She's going to be turning two before I know it, and then the time will fly even faster! And Gabe is going to be six in less than 2 months!!!! Where has the time gone?

At the Doctor's Again

2008-12-16T18:41:00.003-05:00

Yes, we made a visit to the pediatrician again yesterday. Kylie started running a little bit of a fever on Sunday, around 102 - nothing big for her. By Monday morning it was up to 104. We were supposed to be having an inspection that day at work, so I gave her some Motrin and took her in. I was figuring on getting through the inspection in the morning and then taking her home. However, the inspector never showed up, and her temp continued to stay between 102 and 104 when the meds would wear off, so at 2:00 I called my doc to see if I could get an appointment for today. I figured that there probably wasn't anything they could do and it had to run it's course, because she had no other symptoms besides the fever, but I still wanted to have her checked out. They told me to bring her down right away and they'd get her in. (I love my ped's office!) So we get there, and guess what.....She has another ear infection!!! I really didn't think that's what it was, she didn't act the way she usually does with an ear infection. But, at least that can be treated instead of just waiting it out. Because the night before had been hell. I got almost no sleep. She kept thrashing around in her crib and talking in her sleep - meow, meow, mommy, daddy, elmo, mom mom, pop pop......it was kinda funny when I wasn't trying to sleep. eventually she ended up in my bed, but was still sleeping very restlessly. Last night wasn't as bad. She still had a little bit of a temp today, but not too high. And it took alot longer to go up. So we're on a 10 day antibiotic again. And I just got reminded of the side effects of antibiotics. Now I need to go wash poop out of her clothes!!! YEAH!!!

Christmas Pictures

2008-12-13T22:54:00.003-05:00

Here's our Christmas pictures for this year. Overall they turned out very well, especially considering that we had them taken at Walmart. They only one I don't like is the first one. Kylie looks cute, but Gabe...Well, I don't know how Gabe looks. It was the very last picture they took, and we tried to retake it, but Kylie absolutely refused to sit down on the table any more and all the rest turned out so well, I wasn't going to fight it.... Now that I have them I can get my Christmas cards out! Yeah!

Dealing with ADHD sucks

2008-12-10T21:59:00.002-05:00

It's been a rough week around here, can you tell? We had changed Gabe's meds to a lower dose to try and mellow out some of the side effects, namely not going to sleep. At first things seemed to be ok. Maybe that was just because it was right around Thanksgiving and both kids had bronchitis, and as long as both of them slept, period, things were ok:) But lately I've been noticing that his behavior is not been as good. He's much more restless, and is having a hard time sitting still and following directions. I noticed that he was having to sit in time out more often in the afternoons at daycare again soon. So I was starting to think that maybe we needed to go back to the higher dose, especially since his sleep was not hugely improved. But I figured we could wait until this prescription ran out first. Yeah....no. I called the doc today to ask for a new prescription at the higher dose. Today, he had a bad time at kindergarten and even had trouble during library, and he's usually really good during his specials. But the real kicker was yesterday. He was supposed to be cutting out a reindeer for a project that they were doing. But he decided that that was too hard for him, so instead he cut the sleeve of his shirt, from wrist to elbow! To say the least, he's been banned from video games for the last 2 days. But the thing is, if I know his meds aren't working right, and that poor impulse control is part of his ADHD, how much can I really punish him for doing something that's kinda out of his control? His teacher told me today that he's been very inconsistent lately and she never knows which Gabe she'd going to have when she comes in in the morning.... So hopefully, I'll have the new prescription by next week and we can get back on track. He's into a bit better routine at bedtime now. We bought a red heat bulb for the frog tank, so it's not nearly as bright in his room at night. And we've continued to use video game time as a reward. He earns extra minutes by staying in bed and going to sleep, and loses minutes if he gets out of bed alot and is playing around. He rarely gets out of bed more than once now, instead of the 6 times or more that he was doing before. So hopefully that will help. If he still seems to have a lot of trouble falling asleep the psychologist recommended trying melatonin supplements, which might always be an option. But I'd rather use that as a last resort. I just hope we can get his meds stabilized and working soon. We've been fiddling with them for close to 2 months now, trying to find the right balance. It's getting rather exhausting now.

The week from Hell?

2008-11-23T21:01:00.002-05:00

It's been a rough week around here, although most of the bad stuff really all happened at the same time! Tuesday night I took the kids to Giant to do some shopping and pick up a prescription. We got all the groceries and were waiting at the Pharmacy when Kylie started throwing up out of nowhere. She got sick 4 times between the pharmacy and paying for our groceries. Then while I was loading the bags in the truck she started gagging again, and I saw that her hair rubber band was in her mouth. She kept throwing up because she was choking on it. Then Tuesday night she was up from 1:30 - 5:30 in the morning. So I ended up sleeping through my alarm and didn't wake up until 8:45. Gabe's supposed to be at school at 8:15 and I'm supposed to be at work at 8:30. To say the least we didn't make it. Gabe got to school an hour late. Partly because as I was packing lunches I heard Kylie coughing and looked in on her to see her spitting something on the floor. She had gotten a hold of Gabe's pill for his ADHD that I thought he'd taken already. She spit most of it out, but she had bitten into it and it had a powder inside. So I wiped her mouth out with a paper towel and gave her a drink and called poison control for the first time in my life. They said that it sounded like she got only a minimal amount and the biggest thing to worry about was that she might show some of the side effects of the medicine - loss of appetite and sleeplessness. She didn't nap very well that day, but otherwise was fine. That was Wednesday, Thursday was crazy because Renee and April were here to finish going through the pictures for the slide show, but it wasn't a bad day. Friday night one of the girls from work was supposed to babysit the kids because I was going to the movies with some friends. The plan was for her to follow me home, because she'd never been here before, and that way I didn't have to worry about moving car seats. Well, she drives a mustang, so I was worried that her car wouldn't make it through the back roads to get home, because it was snowing, so we took 83. BIG MISTAKE!!! She slid off the side of the road, and when I saw her go off in my rear view, I hit my breaks and slid off too, even with my 4 wheel drive on. So we finally get up 83 and get off in Shrewsbury and leave her car at Giant. She was going to ride with me and just spend the night. Well, as soon as we turned onto Plank Rd. traffic stopped. I didn't do more than 10mph the entire way along the road, which goes all the way from Shrewsbury to Stewartsown. IT TOOK AN HOUR TO GET DOWN THE ROAD!!!! It usually takes maybe 10 minutes. There was some idiot stuck in the middle of a hill at the end of the road that had all the traffic stopped. Funny, because all the rest of us were able to go around him, when we were lucky enough to get a minute with no oncoming traffic, because god forbid anyone stop to let a few of us through! So to say the least I didn't make my 7:10 movie since I didn't get to my house until 7:00. It took me 2 HOURS to get home from work! I only live 15 minutes away! I was pretty pissed, but at least Heather was able to get my money back for my ticket since we'd bought them a week in advance! Yesterday we sat around the house and did nothing. Kylie and I slept in until 10:00, which was heavenly. It seems if I keep her up until 10:00 at night she will sleep straight through until about 6:00am. It's worked for the last 3 nights in a row. Unfortunately after getting up at 6 today, she wouldn't go back to sleep though. Today we were down at the armory with Renee and April trying to get the last minute details hashed out for the bull roast next weekend, and sell some tickets! I really hope this week is a whole lot less eventful!

Checkup

2008-11-11T19:40:00.003-05:00

Kylie had her 18 month check up at the doctor's today. She is doing well. She didn't like being there at all. She screamed while they did everything....checked her temp, her weight, her height, etc.... She is 31 inches tall - 35% and 20.5 pounds - 10%. The doc is not worried about her weight though, and although she gained only a few ounces, she grew 2 or 3 inches. She got 2 shots, which she didn't like, naturally. Otherwise she is doing great. She's got a little eczema on her face, but hopefully that will clear up. I did talk to to doctor about Gabe's new meds too. He's doing very well on them. He's MUCH calmer than he used to be, and he's doing better at school. Although sometimes he gets SO focused he can't get things finished. But we are dealing with some side effects. He's pretty emotional, but I'm dealing with that. The biggest problem is that it's taking him forever to go to sleep at night. So, the doctor decided to try a lower dose of the medicine that he's currently on to see if that helps him get to sleep better, so we'll see how he does with that. That's about all for us for now.

Tub Time Fun

2008-11-02T21:16:00.003-05:00

I just had to share.....

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T17:50:00.006-04:00

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween, I know we did. The kids had a party at daycare in the morning, and got to dress up for that. And Gabe got a huge bag of candy! One of the mom's was doing face painting at the party, and gave Gabe a little mustache and gotee that looked really good with his costume. Luckily I took pictures as soon as he was done, because about 5 minutes later he wanted it all washed off. After work we went to Renee's house so we could all go trick or treating together. Gabe had an absolute ball and was running with Brenden and Josh from one house to the next, screaming and yelling along the way. There were a couple houses that were decorated really scary that he wouldn't get near. One did this whole pirate themed decoration in their year with a huge ship and everything. I really wanted to get Gabe's picture in front of it since he was dressed as a pirate but he wouldn't go near it. But when we came back down the street from the other side, and the house was a lot less crowded he did at least go up to them for candy. He got an extra special prize because he was dressed like a pirate. Kylie was very content at first to ride in the stroller and I would take her up to the houses that I could wheel the stroller right up to. She LOVED carrying her bucket. After a while I got her out of the stroller to let her walk for a bit. BIG, HUGE MISTAKE!! She would scream every time I tried to put her back in the stroller. I ended up carrying her because she was walking so slow and just let her down at the driveways to walk up them. She wouldn't let anyone else carry her at all, or she'd scream, and eventually, she wanted to walk the whole time and would scream if I didn't put her down. To say the least, I'd had enough. My feet and knees were killing me from carrying her up and down the hills for an hour and a half. And she's definitely had enough. Once we got back to Renee's and got her out of her costume and into nice, comfy, warm jammies, and got her some snacks and juice, she was fine. We stayed to play for a while, then finally came home and went to bed! It was definitely an experience! Here's the pictures of the kids!!!

Here's a picture of me with the kids at the Halloween party at daycare.

This is Gabe after he got his face painted!

Little Miss Kylie, the pirate princess...
Arrrr, Matey!

And then the hat came off, and never went back on!

Our weekend project

2008-10-25T20:32:00.002-04:00

Well, as promised, Gabe and I made a gingerbread haunted house today. And here are the photos....

The black face is from him licking the beaters after I mixed the black icing!

Here's Gabe adding the candies to the roof. I iced the roof and made the windows and door, then Gabe got to add all the candies.

The finished product! It's a little droopy, because the icing ran some, but not too bad for a first attempt I think.

Update

2008-10-21T20:53:00.003-04:00

Well, not too much going on lately. We did take the kids to get pumpkins last weekend, but it was kind of a bust. Instead of going where we usually go, we tried out an open house at a farm very close to the house. They had pumpkins, but not pick your own, and they were a bit expensive. You also had to pay for the hayride, and pony rides (which Gabe didn't notice they had, thank goodness) and anything else you wanted to do! When we left they even had someone sitting out to charge for parking! So we definitely won't go there again, but it worked for this year. I've been sick all weekend, so it was a quick trip, which was good for me. The kids liked the hayride, and I had to drag Kylie away from the ducks!!! I spent most of Sunday and part of Monday in bed feeling like hell. I ended up leaving work early on Monday, because I felt so bad. And I almost never take off work because I'm sick, only if the kids are. Paul was so great! He cooked all weekend, and Monday night, and dealt with the kids so I could sleep. I'm feeling better today. Not great, but better. I'm still stuffy, but no longer feel like I'm going to pass out every time I stand up! Today was visitation day at Gabe's school for American Education Week. PopPop and I both went up to visit. We got to stay for 2 hours and it was really great to be able to see what he does at school, and how he was interacting with the teacher and other kids. It also helped me to see how he's doing on his meds in a classroom setting. I was very proud of him. There was a boy at his table who was TOTALLY distracting, talking and just all over the place, and usually this would have completely distracted Gabe, but he stayed completely focused on what he was doing. Of course, he was SO focused that it took him forever to get anything done! But it was definitely helpful to see what kind of things they are doing there, so I know what kind of things to work on with him at home. We had about a half hour after the visitation was over before he got out of school so we paid a visit to the book fair. I bought a book for him and a very cute book for Kylie with chattering monkeys, and a book to donate to his classroom. PopPop bought him two books, a Christmas one and one called Dinotrain. We had to read that one at bedtime tonight! He loved it! We got to spend the last few minutes of the visitation with him in computer class. They librarian/computer teacher gave us the website that they've been working with in class, and I let him get on there to play when we got home tonight. He spent an hour on the computer! It's a cute website. www.poissonrouge.com It's pretty basic stuff, designed more for getting them familiar with how to use a mouse and navigate the site, but he still enjoyed it. I think that's about all our news for now. Check back next week to see if we actually managed to make the gingerbread haunted house I'm planning on attempting this weekend while Paul's away for drill. There might even be pictures!!! Oh, who am I kidding, this IS me we're talking about! You know there will be pictures!

Doctor Visit

2008-10-13T19:25:00.002-04:00

Both the kids had a doctor's visit today. She checked Kylie's ears...all clear. And gave her her flu shot, which she didn't like. We go back next month for her 18 month check up. I also talked to her about Gabe's behavior problems at school and home and my thoughts on the need to change his ADHD meds. She agreed that it sounded like he needed a change - unlike the other doc in the practice that I only see when I have no other choice who told Paul last week that he was fine with what he was on when he took Gabe for his flu shot and asked about changing his meds. She was surprised when I told her that Gabe could swallow a pill. I guess kids his age usually can't. But I suspected that he needed a med change and knew that a lot more options were available if he could swallow a pill. So we've been working on it for a while, and he's been swallowing his pill for a few weeks now. So the doc switched him from metadate to Vyvanse. It is more of a time release pill and should help control his ADHD throughout the entire day. So, we'll see how it works. Other than that, they are doing great! We were on our own all weekend, because Paul was away, and I was in serious cleaning mode this weekend. So besides the usual dishes and laundry, Gabe and I tackled his bedroom and bathroom, his play room and the living room. So for a few days at least, my house will not look like someone tried to bomb us! We went to the open house at the fire house on Saturday and we got to go on a fire truck ride, which both kids loved! And today after the doctor's, since we had an hour wait for Gabe's prescription, we went to the playground. Hopefully, next weekend we will be going to the pumpkin patch!

Vacation Pictures

2008-10-05T21:51:00.008-04:00

Vacation pictures, as promised!!

Kylie just enjoying her first day on the beach!

Gabe on the Harley motorcycle game

Gabe playing mini golf

Only Gabe could find a little green army guy hidden in the sand!

Kylie playin on the beach

Lots of football got played on the beach

Gabe plaing in the ocean!

Kylie playing in the ocean too!

Kylie practicing to be a beauty queen!

Daddy, Gabe and Kylie pose for a picture!

There's just something about baby footprints in the sand....

Vacation

2008-09-30T22:26:00.003-04:00

Well, we got home from our weekend at the beach yesterday evening. It was a good weekend overall, even if it was cut a little short. We were supposed to go down on Wednesday afternoon, but because they were calling for lots of rain, we waited and went down Friday afternoon instead. The good part about that was that Gabe only missed one day of school instead of three. The kids were amazingly well behaved for both the drive down there and back. Kylie slept a good portion of each trip, since we worked them around her naps times. Gabe spent most of his time playing his v smile or watching a movie. After we got down there Friday and got unloaded, Paul took the kids to the beach while I unpacked. Gabe was loving life. Kylie wasn't so sure. She wouldn't leave Paul's side the whole time they were down there. Saturday dawned a little cloudy, breezy and a bit on the chilly side. That didn't stop us. Gabe threw on a long sleeve shirt with his bathing suit, and I put a running suit on Kylie over the bathing suit, and off we went. Gabe very quickly had Daddy in the water. Kylie got over her dislike of the sand, and got down and dirty. She was sick, with a fever and VERY runny nose, and was drooling all over the place. So, of course, she was wet everywhere. She had so much wet sand caked in the zipper of her running suit, I almost had to hose her off to get it off her. We spent a few hours on the beach, then headed up to the apartment for lunch/nap. Both kids had lunch, then Gabe laid down to watch some TV and have a brief rest, and Kylie went down for her nap. Daddy and Gabe soon headed back to the beach, and once Kylie woke up we got dressed again and headed back down ourselves. As soon as we got down there it started to rain, so we packed up and headed up to the apartment again. After we all showered, we hit the boardwalk. We walked a bit then had some dinner. After that we hit the arcade. Gabe had a ball, and played a bunch of games and got a few prizes for his efforts. Then it was home to bed. Kylie had a really bad night that night, and none of us got much sleep. Sunday morning came all too quickly, but dawned brighter and warmer than the day before. We were a little slower moving, but eventually got to the beach. It was definitely warmer and we were all stripped down to our swim suits. There was a sand bar a little ways out, and I decided to take Gabe out there. I carried him through the deeper part, where the current was pretty strong, and put him down out on the bar. He was good at first, but then a huge wave crashed a little ways out from us. I guess it scared him, because he let go of my hand and went running for shore. Paul, who was standing at the shoreline hold Kylie - who was still terrified of the water at this point - and I were both screaming at him to stop when he hit the deeper part and fell off the ledge. And got swept away. I was running after him and after a few tumbles on his part I managed to catch him and get him up out of the water. I almost lost my footing trying to get him back to shore, the current there was so strong. To say the least, he was rather scared of going very far in the water after that. We had borrowed a boogie board from a girl I work with, but he wasn't very keen on that either. He loved the idea of it, and would lay down on it, but when Paul would pull him backwards into the waves, and the water would splash up over him, he'd freak out. Maybe we can try that again next year. After a couple hours we headed up for lunch again. I was so exhausted from being up all night with Kylie that I decided to take a nap with her. When we woke up, everyone was in the apartment. It had started to rain again. It looked like the weather was clearing, so Mom Mom and I took Gabe to play mini gold, while Daddy and Pop Pop stayed behind with Kylie. Good thing too, because we got rained on. But, Gabe had a ball and LOVED it, so it was all good. We started packing that night and got up early the next morning to hit the beach. It was a gorgeous morning. Kylie actually got in the ocean today! WOOHOO!! It took a bit, but she finally let up get her a little wet! And she didn't scream! And actually seemed to have fun. Gabe, not surprisingly, was not as keen on the water today. It took a while before he'd go in at all, and then only about knee deep. Hopefully by the next time we go, he'll have forgotten about his near drowning! We stayed on the beach as long as the kids could take it, and finally headed up when Gabe complained he was hungry, and Kylie was getting really sleepy. It was starting to really cloud up, so it seemed like a good time. We bathed and had lunch, finished packing, loaded the car and hit the road. Kylie was asleep before we'd crossed the bridge out of Ocean City. And didn't wake up until we hit rush hour traffic at 95 on 695. It was a fairly quite drive home! I had the day off today, so we took Gabe to school, then headed home to clean out and vacuum my car, unpack and do laundry. I also took Kylie to the doctor's. She's got and ear infection, and probably had it the whole time we were away, so, considering that, she was extremely well behaved and happy. By the time Paul got home from work today he was running a fever too. Just as Kylie's was finally fading away. She hasn't had a fever since last night, but ran a temp between 99 and 103 for 7 days. YEAH! I've gone through a LOT of Motrin and Tylenol in the last week. Hopefully, Paul will be feeling better soon, because I know he was miserable tonight. Vacation pictures to follow soon!!

This and That

2008-09-15T22:59:00.002-04:00

Sorry I've been absent for a while. There hasn't been a whole lot noteworthy going on. Gabe has started Kindergarten. He seems to like it, and has been doing pretty well, until today. I got a note home from his teacher that he was talking at inappropriate times during the day, and not following the rules. She had spoken to me once before about him talking when she's trying to teach. He was also bad for me at daycare today and peed his pants twice this afternoon. Overall not a good day. We'll see how tomorrow goes. We've been having a rough time in the mornings too. We fight all morning about getting him to eat his breakfast and drink his milk before we get out of the house. Not sure what to do there. Kylie had a bit of a rough weekend. She was beating herself up all weekend. Friday, she pulled the highchair down on top of her head. Than at my mom's house that night, she fell down the stairs, and landed on her face. So, she'd got a bit of a black eye. Well, now it's kinda green. She hit her head a few other times over the weekend too, I can't remember them all, but nothing really bad. She got bit again at daycare today too. Still trying to get her to drink milk for a cup. She's doing slightly better. She drank a whole cup over the course of the day yesterday. I got some Strawberry Nesquick at the store today so see if she might like that better. Not too much else going on right now. Things are pretty boring right now. :)

Some videos of the kids

2008-08-26T18:06:00.006-04:00

Here's some new videos of the kids!

This is a video of Gabe doing his own style of break dancing on DJ day at school!

This is Gabe shaking his butt!

This is just a cute video of Kylie "talking" to Daddy!

New pictures!!!

2008-08-24T23:14:00.007-04:00

Here's the newest pictures!

Here's Kylie wearing slippers that are WAY to huge for her on Pajama day, and loving them!

This is Kylie's newest face, which she first started making whenever Daddy would pour water over her head in the tub. Now she does it all the time! I have a really cute video of this, but when I watched it I realized that even though he was sitting behind the shower curtain, you could see Gabe from the waist down only in the tub with her. Definitely not Internet worthy material!

Kylie in her pretty outfit on luau day!

Gabe and Kylie hula dancing together on luau day!

They were supposed to be using their mouths to dig the fruit pieces out of the whipped cream...this was as close as Gabe would get. He didn't want to get his face messy!

Kylie on Daddy's motorcycle. She loves it!

I made a bed out of this big, soft, squishy blocks, and Kylie laid right now and said" NiNight".

Gabe got to show off his quirkiness when the kinder singer was at school.

Kylie tried to pop a bubble on my nose!

This was the day the DJ was there. Gabe was one of the last three kids and they all got out on the same round of the limbo. I laid on the floor to take this picture so you could see how low he actually went!

DJ day again, doing the Hamster Dance!!

Kylie has taken to wearing her bucket as a hat!

Daddy let her try one of our pears from off the tree that had been sitting on the counter for a while and was nice and soft and juicy! She dug right in. She was taking suck big bites we had to take it away and cut the seeds out before she ate them!

I have some videos too, but they take too long to start uploading now, seeing as how it's already after midnight, and I'll be up soon with Kylie again. So, I'll add another post with the videos soon!

August....

2008-08-24T22:45:00.003-04:00

...has FLOWN by!!! It has really been a crazy month! I can't believe that I haven't posted since the very beginning of the month! The worst part is that even though it seems like I've had no time to do anything, I can't really remember half of what was going on to keep us all so busy! Kylie had her 15 month check up and is doing well. She's 20lbs and 29 1/2 inches long. And she's talking up a storm! The doctor asked me if she had more than 3 words besides Mama and Dada, and I actually laughed at her. Try 20 or more words, and she tries to repeat almost everything you say to her! Our big concern now is trying to get her to sleep through the night. I've started mixing carnation instant breakfast into her bottles at night ( which the doctor told me I need to start getting rid of! Help! How will I get her to sleep?!?!?) Which usually helps her sleep longer, but still not through the night. She still usually wakes up once for a bottle. So the doc suggested pushing her bedtime back by an hour or so, which I've done. And told me I need to try to get her to drink more milk during the day. Problem....I CANNOT get her to drink milk from a cup. I've tried mixing it just like I do in her bottles at night. I've tried adding chocolate carnation instead of vanilla. I've tried chocolate carnation and chocolate syrup to make it sweeter. I've tried strawberry and banana pediasure. No go on all of them. She doesn't take more than a few sips all day long. So, I really don't know what to do. And I'm really worried that when I do finally get around to weaning her off the bottles that she won't drink any milk at all. I also had a conversation with the doctor about her seeing an ENT because of her ear infections. Right now she is borderline, but if she gets any more, then she'll give me the referral. So, we'll see. Right now, both kids are a little under the weather. Gabe's not a nasty cough and stuffy nose. Kylie's got a bit of a stuffy nose and isn't eating or sleeping well. And she is occasionally messing with her ears, but she hasn't had a fever or anything, so I'm not sure if I should take her to have her ears checked or not? We've spent alot of time getting ready for school. Gabe's first day of Kindergarten is on Tuesday. I got with him for an hour that day, then Wednesday he goes all morning and is on his own. We had back to school night last week. I was very proud of him. I had told him his teachers name before we went in there, and as we walked into the classroom, he says "Hi, Mrs. Wood." He remembered and was nice and well mannered. He's very excited, and didn't get upset when we left him with his teacher to go to the cafeteria to meet with the principal. The only upset came because he won't get to ride the bus, so he doesn't have a bus number like all the other kids do. He REALLY wants to ride the bus! But otherwise things are great. We've got all his school supplies, and he's very excited to go! He's going very well as far as his potty accidents are going too. He's gone from having accidents once or twice a day, to only having them once or twice a week. I did discuss with his teacher having him wear pull-ups to school for the first week or two, to help prevent accidents until he's familiar and comfortable with the rules and routines at the new school, and she said that that would be fine! Paul has officially taken over his new position at the armory, and things are going well. And I'm going crazy at work. My friend and co teacher, Heather has been out sick with a migraine for over 2 months now. Nothing works and it won't go away. Her MRI was normal, so, she's waiting for them to run more tests to try and figure out what's causing them. But in the meantime, that leaves me alone in my room, having to do all the lesson planning and everything all on my own, and never knowing who will be in there with me, if anyone. We lost on of our babies last week because her parents pulled her out because she was getting bitten alot. Yes, we have a biter in our room, and no it's not Kylie, thank god! But, it's bad. She bit Makayla 4 times in one week, and I caught her and stopped her even more than that. So Makayla's parents pulled her out. The following Monday, she bit Kylie three times in one day. So now, her parents are having her go around all day with her pacifier in her mouth to try and keep her from biting. Unfortunately, this seems to be helping a little bit. I say unfortunately, because I don't like her using the pacifier all day. For one, she was only using it at nap time, and now after a week of having it all day, she won't go anywhere or do anything without it. So they're going to have a hell of a time breaking her from it later, which may lead her to start biting again at a later time. Long term it can also have a negative effect on her oral and language development. But I'm not the parent, so who and I to tell them how to try and handle this problem with their child. Things are only going to get more interesting because this week, 2 of my babies come back from vacation after being gone for 2 weeks. So we might as well be starting all over again with them. And I also have 2 new babies starting this week. So, I'll have between 4 and 6 kids every day. YEAH!
Well, I think that's all of the biggest news for now. I'll follow this post with another post of all the new pictures from this month!!

Gabriel....

2008-08-01T21:38:00.002-04:00

...decided to use my razor as a play toy tonight in the bathtub and cut his lip up pretty good. IT took a little bit to get the bleeding to stop. But now that it has, it doesn't look too bad. It's not that deep, but boy, did it bleed alot! God only knows where he got this idea from, or why he thought it would be a good thing to play with. Hopefully, he learned a lesson from this one!

Good News

2008-08-01T19:01:00.002-04:00

We just got word today that Paul got the full time AGR job with the Army National Guard at Towson Armory! This is going to be a BIG break for us financially! He's been trying to get an AGR job for so long, and he's finally done it, and at his home armory to boot! It's a really great piece of news for us!

Some other new pictures

2008-07-30T21:22:00.005-04:00

I had some cute pictures of Kylie so I thought I'd share!

Sleeping Beauty... This is her cuddling with her new puppy. She has to take him to bed every night. I'll be rocking her, and, as she's falling asleep, she's whispering "puppy...puppy." It's very sweet.

I love this picture. They are both lounging in Gabe's playroom watching God only knows what on the TV. But I love that she is in Gabe's chair and Gabe is laying on the floor. That's the way they are.

Kylie LOVES to do art at school, especially painting. Usually when we paint it is with bingo markers. As you can see, Kylie tries to eat hers this time.... And is still adorable!

This one cracks me up because only my child would be outside in a moonbounce trying to put her shoes back ON! She has a bit of a shoe fetish I fear!! :) She's all girl... at least sometimes!

Another Field Trip

2008-07-30T21:01:00.005-04:00

Today we took a field trip to the Science Center in Baltimore. It was a lot of fun! Gabe could have spent all day there. I kept having to drag him away from exhibits so that we could have time to do everything. And we didn't get to do any of the shows. We could have easily spent the whole day doing stuff. He really liked the dinosaurs. And the space exhibit. I think those were his favorites. But it was a good day. I'd love to take the kids back down there sometime.

Here's the pictures...

Here's Gabe and Riley digging up dinosaur bones.

Here's Gabe under a dinosaur skeleton that was discovered in Canada.

Here's Gabe dressed up in his space suit.

Gabe made a funny....

2008-07-26T23:46:00.004-04:00

Yesterday at school he was biting.sucking on his arm, and basically gave himself a hickey! When I asked him why he did he told me......get this.....because it tastes like chicken!!!! Where does the kid come up with this stuff??

In other news, he earned his 5 stickers for his potty chart so as a "reward" I took him shopping for school supplies! It needed to be done anyway, but It was a special trip, just me and him, and we went to McDonald's for treats afterwards! I can't believe that I'm buying him school supplies!!!

Kylie is finally feeling better, and sleeping slightly better. My goal is to stay out of the doc office until her checkup on the 12th. That's 2 whole weeks, not sure if we can make it! She's still waking up at night for a bottle, which sucks. But she's also been doing alot of crying in her sleep lately, not sure what that's all about.

For some bizarre reason, I have a BOATLOAD of mosquito bites on my right elbow, but none anywhere else. Weird, huh?

OK, I'm babbling, a sure sign of sleep deprivation. And thank God for spell check because I'm screwing up every other word right now, so... good night!

Sick, Sick, Sick!

2008-07-22T19:37:00.002-04:00

I'm SO tired of my kids being sick!! Gabe is getting better, but now Kylie's got whatever virus he had. Which was NOT strep like we thought. The culture's all came back negative. I stayed home with her this morning and took her to the doctor's then left her home with Paul and went to work for the afternoon. When I got home her fever was up to 105.2!! Yeah! I'm sure it'll hit 106 before she's through! Wow, having a kid that runs high fevers sure is fun! You just gotta love life with kids! The things we give up for them, I tell ya! Not that I'd trade it for the world! I know I'm doing myself in, because I still rock Kylie to sleep every night, but I just am not ready to give up holding my sleeping baby in my arms. Especially since she's probably my last! I'll pay for it later, but I'll worry about that later too!

Some cute pictures of the kids

2008-07-20T14:10:00.013-04:00

I have a whole bunch of really cute pictures to share with all of you. Most are of Kylie. Since I'm with her all day at school, I take a lot of pictures of her! I think I have a few pictures of Gabe to share too, though!

This is Gabe trying to catch fish in my mother's pond on the 4th of July. He's using a toy rod from a pond decoration!

This is Kylie on the 4th of July!

Word to the wise, finger painting with one year old is dangerous...

...and messy!
This is Kylie's Fish Face!

Here is Kylie eating a freeze pop by herself for the first time. Naturally, Daddy gave it to her. Mommy never would have let her do it herself...too messy!

We had the kids playing in shaved ice in the water table at school one day. Pretty much all they did was toss in on the floor or eat it!

After the fire museum, Gabe came home and dressed up in his fire fighter costume. Kylie decided to get in on the action too by wearing Gabe fire fighter helmet. Daddy put it on too, but I thought I'd be nice and NOT share that picture with all of you!! LOL

This is just a picture of Kylie looking cute in a pretty outfit that I really like!

Another week gone by

2008-07-20T13:14:00.010-04:00

This was an interesting week around here for us. Monday Gabe went on a field trip, and I got to go with him! We went to the Fire Museum in Towson. Naturally, since it had to do with fire trucks, Gabe loved it! They have a discovery room where the kids could dress up as fire fighters and play on a real fire truck. Needless to say, it was a hit!

Gabe all dressed up like a fireman!

Driving the firetruck!
Wednesday, Gabe started not feeling well. He had a fever and was complaining that his throat hurt, so he stayed home from school on Thursday and Daddy took him to the doctor's. He said that it looked like strep, but the rapid test was negative. So they sent out a culture and put him on antibiotics. So he stayed home with Daddy again on Friday, but he should be able to go back to school tomorrow. He still complains some about his throat hurting, but his fever's gone. Kylie is finally doing much better, and is sleeping a little better. She's only been waking up once a night for a bottle and going right back to sleep. Although she was crying in her sleep a lot last night. Now I'm just praying she doesn't catch Gabe's Strep!!!

Yesterday we went to the local carnival and fireman's parade. We met up with April and Nick and Jason and Renee and all the boys for the parade , so, as expected, they had a ball. I didn't expect Kylie to get too much out of the parade, but she surprised me. She LOVED it. She was sitting on Paul's lap and bouncing up and down and shrieking and yelling and talking away!!! It was very cute. She didn't get too much out of the carnival, as she was still a little too small for all of it. But she got to ride around in the stroller and look at everything. And I let her play the duck pond game, so she had fun picking out the ducks, and got a small stuffed one as a prize! Today is going to be spent lazing around the house and catching up on laundry. Nothing exciting!!!

The gang waiting for the parade to start!Daddy and Kylie watching the firetrucks!

Kylie is cheering away!

Gabe riding the Kiddie Coaster

Mommy and Gabe on the Ferris Wheel

Kylie picking a duck out of the pond.

Exactly Where on the Family Tree...

2008-07-10T20:42:00.013-04:00

...is Evil Knievel? I swear my children are related to him! Paul got Gabe a 4 wheeler over the weekend. He bought it from Wendy. It was Brittani's, but she didn't use it. So it's small, made for kids, and has a throttle control, so he can't go that fast. But STILL, it looks like he's flying on it! The first night he rode it, he was too busy looking behind him, and drove under one of the pine trees in the backyard! Gabe absolutely loves it though!

Here Gabe is all dressed up in his new helmet and racing shirt from Ms. Donna!

Here he is riding away!

Naturally, Paul had to put Kylie on the 4 Wheeler too. She LOVED it!! She screamed when he tried to take her off it. So, he decided that it was time to get out the Power Wheels 4 Wheeler that Renee and Jason got for her for her birthday. She has lots of fun with that! She can't steer worth a crap, but she loves it! She'll be driving, and rocking back and forth, trying to get it to go faster! I've even caught her standing on it!!! We are definitely in trouble with these two!

Daddy and Kylie on the 4 Wheeler

Kylie riding her Power Wheels

Rough Week

2008-07-05T00:26:00.002-04:00

Well it has definitely been a rough week here for Paul and I and Kylie. I had her at the docs last week because she was acting out of sorts and REALLY not sleeping well, and, as I figured, she had an ear infection. So they put her on antibiotics. She REFUSED to take them! She would push her tongue out and up against the roof of her mouth so I couldn't get the medicine dropper in her mouth. And if by chance I did manage to get it in there, she'd spit the medicine out of the corner of her mouth as I was putting it in. Not good. So the doc recommended mixing it in a very small amount of very heavy chocolate milk. So we tried this, and gave it to her in a bottle as apposed to from the medicine dropper, because at this point she was refusing ALL medicine, not just the antibiotic. It worked pretty well, so she was taking the meds again, good.... Only she still wasn't sleeping. And when I say not sleeping, I mean NOT SLEEPING! She was waking up every hour or two from the time I put her down. Most of the time, she'd fall back asleep as soon as I'd pick her up, but after a minute or two, she would arch her back and try to throw herself off my lap, and start screaming. This would sometimes last for an hour or more before I could get her back in her crib. Then would come the time when she would do this so much that she'd completely wake herself up. That was BAD. She's refuse to sleep and want to play. Usually by this time, Paul was wide awake anyway, so he'd take her in the living room so I could get some sleep. When this would happen she's be up for 2-4 hours before Paul would get her back to bed. This was happening pretty much every night. I don't think I've had more than 3 hours sleep a night, total, not consecutive hours, in about 10 days. I'm kinda delirious at this point. Tuesday night she went to bed at 8:30. She woke up at 10, 11, 12, and 1, then was up from 3:00 - 6:30. So I left her at home when I went to work, hoping she'd sleep for a few hours. She woke up at 8. She then didn't take any nap at all during the day and I kept her up a hour past her normal bedtime that night in hopes that she'd be exhausted and sleep better. No such luck! Wednesday night, she started running a fever of almost 103. And she was still up every few hours as well as being up from 2-4:30. By Thursday morning, her temp was almost 104. So I decided that I was NOT playing with this over the holiday weekend, and took her to the doc's again! I suspected that the infection had moved to her other ear. I was right. The first ear wasn't getting any better, and the other ear was starting to get red. So they switched her to a different antibiotic that we started today. Her fever kept up in the 103-104 range throughout most of the day. She had Tylenol when she went to bed at 9:00 last night, and her temp was 103.8. She woke up at 11:45, a little early for more medicine, but she felt totally cool, so I didn't check her temp. It was a little after 1:00 when we got her back to sleep. She woke up again at 2:15, and felt pretty warm, so I checked her temp again.....it was 106.2! YEAH!! So I gave her Motrin and packed her in ice while I gave her a bottle. It was down to 103.5 within about 40 minutes, which was good. I didn't even bother to wake Paul up and tell him that her fever had gone that high. I was pretty proud of myself, because I stayed pretty calm. But after the last time she had that really high fever, I kinda knew what to do, and knew that as long as the fever comes down with meds, there's no real reason to panic. She then slept until about 8:15 this morning, which is that most sleep I've had in a long time! She's been a little better today. Her temp has still been between 101 and 103, but it's been very slow to go up. I've only needed to giver her medicine twice today, so hopefully tomorrow the fever will be gone all together. I just REALLY hope she starts sleeping better soon. Oh, did I mention that she's teething too? Sometimes life just really sucks!

Our Week

2008-06-29T23:07:00.010-04:00

I can't believe that I'm just getting to sit down and write this now, but , WOW, has it been a busy week! Monday Paul joined Gabe's class for a field trip to a local alpaca farm. They got to tour the farm, and pet and feed the alpacas. Gabe had a great time. Wednesday, they had a field trip to a local dairy farm, Perrydell Farm. Again, Paul got to join in the fun! He was SO excited! LOL They got to see the animals, and pet them. There were baby cows there too, which the kids loved! They also got to learn how to milk a cow. There was a wooden cow, with a setup behind it that let the kids practice milking. Gabe really liked that! Friday, we had a small petting zoo come to the daycare center, and the kids all got pony rides! Gabe loved it! He wasn't scared at all of the ponies, or any of the other animals. Kylie on the other hand, wanted no parts of getting on the ponies, even with Gabe, although I really did try! She liked looking at the little animals though! Then, Friday night, Paul and I headed downtown, because Saturday we had reintegration meeting all day for the Army! Oh, Yeah. But we went out to dinner Friday night with April and Nick, and Jason and Renee, and had a good time. We went to Phillips for dinner, and our waited was a riot!! It certainly made for an entertaining meal! After we finished up there Saturday we headed up to our friends wedding. To say the least, we had a busy day! So today was a day of rest. I slept in late, while Paul got up with the kids, but he got to take a little nap later in the day. Other than that, I did some laundry and we just hung around the house all day! Here's some pictures from all the school events!

Gabe at the alpaca farm.

Here he is feeding one of the alpacas.

Gabe and Daddy pose for a picture!
Gabe with the cows at Perrydell Farm.

Kylie and Samantha at the petting zoo... I think they're looking at the goat.

Kylie really liked the bunny Aunt Heather was holding.

Even with Gabe holding her, we still couldn't get Kylie on the pony.
Here's Gabe petting the goat! This was before it tried to run me over and knock me off the pavilion!

Unfortunately, my computer is being a pain in the a** again, and won't let me upload half the pictures I want to, so these will have to do. Sigh...

Our Weekend

2008-06-15T21:48:00.011-04:00

We had a pretty lazy weekend around here, so not much exciting to write about. I did laundry, and ran to the store. Paul finished the railing outside! And the kids played outside. I got both of them new, inflatable, outdoor toys, so we blew them up and played with them! Kylie got a baby gym set. It's a big square, with a canopy and has balls and rings and things to play with. She liked it. But spent a lot of time in it hanging over the side making faces at me! Gabe got a new pool, which we blew up on Sunday. It's pretty cool, it has a slide, and a basketball hoop. But he's such a wuss and REALLY doesn't like getting his face wet. So, even though he enjoyed the pool, he's kinda boring to watch play in it! We got Kylie's pool out today too, and she had a ball. I think she would have stayed in it all day. I actually contemplated getting her soap, and giving her her bath in the pool, because she was already all wet! Daddy kept squeezing out the splash balls over her head. You could tell she really didn't like it, but she didn't cry. And every time, after he was finished, she'd give this big shiver!!! It was kinda cute! And that was about the extent of our weekend. But, of course, I have pictures to share!! I made sure I took some of Gabe today too, and not just Kylie this time!! Unfortunately my computer is trying to make a liar out of me and refusing to upload all but one of my picture of Gabe. Don't know why, I can upload the pictures of Kylie just fine, but every time I try to upload one of Gabe it doesn't work. I'll have to try again tomorrow. In the mean time, here are the pictures that I did get to upload!

This is just a cute picture of Kylie from Saturday morning!

This is Kylie playing in her new gym outside on Saturday.
This is Daddy and Kylie. We were getting dinner ready and turned around to find her wearing Paul's hat, so of course, I had to take pictures!

Kylie playing in her gym again this morning while we set up Gabe's pool.

Kylie's trying to climb up the slide!

Here's Kylie playing in her pool this afternoon.

Here's the one picture of Gabe that I could upload. He's playing with the slide for his pool, before we tied it down! And still in his PJ's!

Well, I got to add this one picture of Gabe today. Maybe more will be forthcoming in future days?

My Baby Graduated!!

2008-06-13T22:55:00.007-04:00

That's right... Gabe's preschool graduation was tonight! It was very cute, although extremely HOT! Kylie was as well behaved as I could have expected. They did a little play, The Garden Of Eden. Gabe was a monkey, and hamming it up. They sang 3 or 4 songs throughout the play, and for the third song, he made sure he wormed his way up front so he could be seen. Then at the end of the song he gives this big, dramatic bow!!! He was the only one too! It was hysterical!!! Then all the graduates came up in little caps and gowns and got their "diplomas". I can't believe that my baby is going to kindergarten next year!! My pictures from the play part are REALLY bad, because I was far back, and zoomed all the way in, but here are some from the actual graduation part!

Here he is walking down the aisle to the stage!

Here he is waiting for his diploma.
Here is is after getting his diploma.

And here he is showing it off for me!

This is the graduation picture that was taken on picture day at school!

Pictures!

2008-06-11T21:29:00.013-04:00

Just wanted to share some recent picture of the kids with you all. They're just too cute to keep to myself!
Here's the pictures of Gabe helping Daddy build the railing...with his plastic hammer!!

Gabe came in to see me at school and came running in saying "Mommy, I'm Indiana Jones. I look like him. Take my picture!"
Here's some pictures of Kylie. Gabe sorta gets the short end of the stick, poor kid. I take WAY more pictures of Kylie than I do of him. But, I'm with her all day, and I have this thing with taking pictures of her in each outfit that she wears, because they are all so cute, and I want to be able to remember them down the road!

This was picture day at school. I had a really hard time deciding what outfit to put on her. Turns out, it didn't matter, because as soon as I put her next to Gabe for the pictures she started screaming and wouldn't stop! So no picture of Kylie. So I took some at home that night! No crying for me!
I LOVE this face! She makes it all the time and just cracks me up!

I love this picture too. She's definitely a Daddy's Girl!
How can you not love that beautiful smile!! She has so much personality, that it amazes me sometimes!

This is one of the giraffe "costumes" for the play they older kids are doing at Graduation on Friday. Kylie "wanders" down to the four year old room, at least once a day, and she was down there while they were getting play stuff together, so the dressed her up and walked her back down for me to see!

Here's my little cowgirl! This outfit was just too cute to resist, and I had to have a picture of her in it. She's just too stinking cute!!

It Was HOT

2008-06-10T22:53:00.007-04:00

As I'm sure you all know, it was HOT this weekend...although my husband says it wasn't hot at all....all of us normal people were sweating our butts off. So I broke out the water toys for the first time this summer. Gabe got a new slip N slide, only he wouldn't slide on it! He would just walk back and forth. GoofBall!

Then Daddy popped it later that night with the lawn mower anyway, so I ended up buying him a new pool on Sunday while I was out shopping. But I got home late so he's been bugging me ever since to set it up, although that's yet to happen. Anyway, I rambled off.... I also got out Kylie's baby pool. Apparently I didn't set it up early enough and the water was still too cold, because she screamed when I tried to put her in it! So I ended up dumping all the water out of it. She was then quite content to sit in there and play for a good long time!!!

Sunday, I set it up early, and put less water in it. Paul said that she played in it just fine then. So I guess I need to make sure that we get her pool water nice and warm for her! LOL I also got some really cute pictures of "Farmer Gabe" on the tractor. He is SUCH a little Paul!

Update

2008-06-03T21:35:00.003-04:00

OK, first of all, I apologize for going so long between posts. Life just kinda got in the way.... Now that Paul's home, things have started to return to normal, and life seems pretty mundane again. So I haven't felt like there's been much to write about. Paul is still off work, and kinda going stir crazy at home. He's definitely getting bored. I figured this one out when I came home Friday to discover that he'd cut down the two bushes on either side of my front porch steps!!! So, now he's working on fixing the existing railing around the porch, and adding onto it so that there are handrails on either side of the steps! He got some really cute pictures of Gabe helping him build the railing, but they're on his camera and he hasn't downloaded them yet. Gabe was hammering some nails down...with his PLASTIC hammer!! It was pretty cute!
Kylie is simply taking off! She started taking some steps a few weeks before her birthday. By the week after her birthday, she was walking pretty well. Now, I can truly say she is walking with confidence...EVERYWHERE! And she's FAST!! I turn my back for a second, and she's across the room. And she's really picking up on words now too. She's probably got over 15 words in her vocabulary now. She says some of the obvious one syllable words - ow, eew, uh oh, and of course, NO! She also says a lot of names - Mommy, Daddy, Gee for Gabe, NaNa, NeeNee, She tries to say Pop, MomMom, Nonna, Chloe, Joshie, and Makayla, or as she says Keelya. She also says doggie, baby stinky, duck, bebe -for her beary bear, eat..and I'm probably forgetting a few. She tries to repeat alot of what you say to her too. So she's really progressing. It's so cute to watch her walking, she just looks too small to be walking so well, but she does it anyway. And her balance is pretty good. She doesn't fall too often, if she's barefoot. Shoes mess her up a little more. As I said, nothing too exciting going on around here. Just normal, day to day stuff! Kylie loves all her new birthday toys. They are scattered all over the living room, and she will sit there for a long time quietly playing by herself with them or looking at her books. She plays so well by herself. It's nice to see, and I rarely disturb her when she's entertaining herself so well! :) I'm not that stupid! Is there anything exciting going on in anyone else's life right now?

Party Time

2008-05-18T21:37:00.013-04:00

Well, Saturday was the day around here. We had a big party to celebrate Kylie's first birthday and Paul's coming home from Iraq. It was a pretty good day. We got lucky weather wise. It was beautiful when we woke up in the morning, but about about 1:00 it was getting very dark and cloudy. I was convinced it was going to rain, but a little while later the sun came back out! It was windy and a little on the cool side at times, but overall, very nice. The kids could play outside, which was great! We cooked out on the grill and had a good time. Kylie really enjoyed herself. She got lots of cute presents, which we've been playing with all day today. It was definitely a good time. Today was nice and quite around here. I slept in, because, once again, I'm battling with a major headache. about 2 hours after I got up, Paul and Gabe left to go downtown for an Orioles game, and Kylie went down for a nap, and so did I. When she woke up, we opened all her new toys and played together for a while. Then when she went down for a second nap, I laid down and watched a movie. An nice, quiet, relaxing day. Just what I needed...

Here's the pretty birthday girl...fresh from her nap and ready to be social:)

Poor Mike... Abby was very fussy, and he tried everything to calm her down. She did seem to like bouncing on the trampoline...

We changed into her princess dress when it was time to open presents

She really liked this cool book that my Uncle George gave her. The animals in the pictures move as you turn the pages.
The princess sits upon her throne....or at least her new chair from NaNa and Pop....

We tried to get her involved in actually opening the gifts, but for the most part she just wanted to play with them!

Fly, Elmo, Fly.......

Daddy gave her a whole strawberry to chew on....She devoured it in about 4 bites!

And she definitely liked her cake!! She went straight from highchair to bathtub!

Birthday Pictures

2008-05-15T22:27:00.010-04:00

I went and picked up my pictures of the kids today, they are SO cute. As promised, here are a few of the best ones!

Kylie's 12 month Checkup

2008-05-13T20:53:00.002-04:00

Well, we had the 12 month check up at the doctor's today. She's doing great. She's right on target for her age. She's 18.3 lbs, and 28 1/4 inches. She got 4 shots, which she was VERY unhappy about! Hopefully, there won't be any ill side effects on party day! I talked to the doc about her still waking up at night for a bottle. She said that if she's taking 5-6 ounces, which she just about always is, then she's probably waking up because she's hungry, and not just because she wants the comfort of the bottle. If that were the case, it probably wouldn't matter too much what was in the bottle, it would be the sucking that she wanted. And trust me, she definitely cares what's in that bottle. She freaked out when I tried giving her water at night in an attempt to break her of the middle of the night bottles. So, basically, I'm just stuck with interrupted sleep for a while longer. Gabe was over 2 years old before she slept through the night consistently. For the same reason, he woke up wanting milk. As soon as he drank his fill he'd go right back to sleep. Makes me wonder if both my kids just have a really high metabolism, and can't make it all night without food. Anyway, we just have to try and wait it out and see what happens. If she gets to where she's only taking an ounce or two during the night, then we'll try weaning her from the nighttime bottles. We were also given the OK to start giving her milk. So, since I only have like 2 days worth of formula left we're going to mix it with milk to get her used to the taste a little, and when the formula is gone, then that's it! YEAH!!!!

My baby is one!

2008-05-10T22:00:00.007-04:00

I can't believe it. Kylie celebrated her first birthday yesterday! It seems like just yesterday she was little tiny baby, and now she a year old! She's doing lots of talking aka babbling, and she's starting to walk a little bit! Where had the time gone? I miss those days of just holding and cuddling her. Now she's always on the go. Pretty soon she's going to be running after her brother and getting into all kinds of trouble. It amazes me that someone so small can have such a unique personality. She is such a happy girl. She loves to talk, and hear the sound of her own voice. She likes books, and LOVES her Beary bear cuddly. And she adores her big brother and her Daddy. It seems like she's growing up so fast! I always wonder what tomorrow will bring. What is she going to do that's new today? It's amazing how much you can love someone so small. We had a little birthday celebration at school for her yesterday. I made mini cupcakes for all the kids in the center, and they sang Happy Birthday, and Gabe helped her blow out her candle. Then we had a cupcake and singing at home for her last night too. And she got one of her birthday gifts. She wasn't too interested in opening it though. Today we went and had birthday pictures taken, and summer pictures of both the kids. We went somewhere new this time. It's a studio called Portrait Innovations. I really liked it. They did a good job, and got some great pictures, even though Kylie was not overly cooperative and was pretty fussy. The down side is that they're really expensive, and they get you.... They took 82 pictures. There's no sitting fees, and they have a 9.95 package deal where you get 1- 10x13, 2- 8x10, 4- 5x7, 4- 31/2x5, and 32 wallets. Not a bad deal. But it's all one pose. So what about the other 81 pictures they took? That's how they get you. You can't just purchase a CD with the pictures on it, you have to get it as part of a package. And the cheapest package you can get with the CD is about $200. Now you get like 9 different poses, 3 sheets of each pose, plus 4 specialty pictures ( composits, black and white, etc..) and 6 picture cards with the package, but still, that's a LOT of money. But, they don't save the pictures there, so if you ever want to order more, you have to get the disk. Hence how they get you. Hence, I spent $200 on pictures! They also print them for you there while you wait, which is nice. But I didn't have that much money in the bank today, so I have to wait till Thursday when er get paid to go pick them up. So I'll post those pictures then. We'll be spending the rest of this week getting ready for the big party here on Saturday. That's the big celebration day!!!!
Here's a few pictures from her birthday!

Latest News

2008-05-02T23:40:00.003-04:00

Sorry to all that I haven't posted in a while. We've been kinda busy around here. I took a few days off work when Paul came home so we could spend a little time together as a family. But, now I'm back to work, and we're trying to get into a new routine. One that includes Daddy again! Of course, things will probably change again once he goes back to work, but that will be a little while yet. The kids are so happy to have Paul home. Gabe wants to do everything with Daddy. And all Kylie says right now is Da Dee!!! ALL DAY LONG!! He swears it's the only word she knows! And it's been so nice for me to have help around the house again, especially with the kids, especially right now, because....Kylie's sick again!!!! She started about 2-2 1/2 weeks ago, with a really stuffy nose and a low grade fever, and waking up alot at night. Well, she wasn't getting better, and then yesterday her temp started going up, so we went to the doctor's. She's got her first ear infection! YEAH! So she's on antibiotics. I was excited because I thought she'd finally start sleeping again, but no luck. Actually, last night was the worst night we've had in almost 3 weeks. I think she's waking up because she's so congested, she just can't breathe. But it seems like since we went to the doctor's she's gotten stuffier, and now she's getting a cough. And last night her temp went up to 104.5! She went to bed around 8:30 last night. She woke up at 9:30, 10:30, and 11:30. She was up from 1-2, and then 4-5, then woke up again at 5:30, and was up for good at 7:15! To say the least, I didn't get much sleep. Most of the time she starts to go back to sleep as soon as I pick her up, but when I try to put her in the crib, she wakes right back up. At least I have a little help now though. I woke Paul up a couple times to get her. During the 1-2 hour, because after about 6 tries of getting her in the crib and her waking back up, I'd had it, and needed a break. And I woke him up to get her when she woke up at 5:30 because I'd just gotten back to sleep, and the alarm was going off in an hour for me to get up for work! Tonight doesn't seem to be shaping up to be a whole lot better. She's already woken up once so far since she went to bed at 9:30. I guess I'll see how we do through the weekend, but if she's not starting to get better by Monday I'll probably be calling the doctor back again. Hope everyone else is doing better than I am right now!!!

HE'S HOME!!!!

2008-04-23T21:37:00.002-04:00

Paul has arrived safely home today! The buses pulled in at Towson Armory around 12:00 this afternoon. It is so great to finally have him home! Gabe was SO excited! And Kylie showed off her new walking skills, but only after a meltdown and a long nap! Pictures will be coming soon!

He's Stateside!

2008-04-15T20:12:00.002-04:00

Paul called earlier today to let me know that he has arrived safely in New Jersey! He'll be there for a little bit and if all goes well, should be home sometime next week!!! YEAH!!! The end is in sight!

On the Way

2008-04-13T23:22:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I heard from Paul about an hour ago, and he has safely arrived in Kuwait. He should be in New Jersey sometime in the next few days. I'll let everyone know when he's finally stateside! We're almost done with this deployment!!!!

Finally Getting Better!

2008-04-05T23:23:00.005-04:00

Well, it seems like the kids are both finally getting better. Gabe ran a fever off an on for most of the week, but is doing much better now. Kylie's cough is pretty much gone, and we're trying to go without the nebulizer and see how she does. We let the kids play in chocolate pudding at school one day this week. Kylie LOVED IT!!!! She was a total mess, but had a blast. She was really eating it up. And then I couldn't figure out why she wouldn't nap that day....hmm....I wonder why??? Here's a few pics of her....

Today was a pretty big day for Kylie too. We went to Aunt Wendy's house for a family dinner today, and for some reason, Kylie decided that she was going to start standing on her own today. She was doing it all day long. She would be standing there holding onto something and then just let so and stand by herself! Then, later in the day, she was standing between me and Wendy, and next thing we know, she takes 2 steps towards Wendy!!! She did this a couple of times today, but only for 2-3 steps. But it seems she's on her way to walking!!! She's getting so big, so quick! She also somehow hit her face on the coffee table this morning and gave herself a black eye! Yeah... That table is dangerous to my kids. Maybe I should get rid of it.....

Can't Catch a Break!....AGAIN!!!

2008-03-31T22:33:00.009-04:00

The fun just never stops around here, let me tell you! Saturday was a busy day for us. We didn't get home until late Friday night from the Vigil for SFC Bowen in Towson. We all hung around the armory for a while talking, and kids were having a good time playing. So I didn't get much sleep that night. Saturday, I overslept (big Surprise) and was rushing around like crazy to get out of the house because we were' having Gabe's birthday party with his friends from school at Tumbletown. Of course, since I was rushing and driving myself nuts worrying that we'd be late, we were early and I had to listen to Gabe whine for 20 minutes about how he wanted to go play! But the party went well. He had a blast, and so did the other kids. In fact, they were having so much fun, that not a single child wanted to sit down and eat cake! They all sung Happy Birthday, then went back to playing! Kylie had a big day Saturday too. While Gabe was having his party, Aunt Heather took her to get her ears pierced! She looks so cute! After we finally got the cake and all the gifts packed into the car, we headed from York to my parents house in Catonsville! Luckily, Kylie slept, and Gabe watched a movie, so it was a peaceful drive. When we got there, I dropped the kids off and went to Babies R Us to get Kylie some summer clothes. Then went back to my parents house to have dinner with them and Mike and Jen and Abby for my birthday. This was yet another late night. Sunday we were supposed to go to my sister in law's house for another birthday dinner, but my mother in law is in the hospital, so that didn't happen. So I went on a cleaning rampage as soon as I got up. By the time the kids went down for a nap I was exhausted. And then Gabe woke up with a fever of 103! I just can't seem to get my kids well. On or the other of then has been sick for almost 3 weeks now. I sure hope it ends soon, because I can't take too much more! His temp was still up during the night, so I stayed home from work today. But hopefully we can go in tomorrow. His temp was down some today, and was taking longer to go back up, so we'll see how it goes. At least Kylie is getting better. I've been able to cut back on the nebulizer a little bit. My battle with her now is trying to wean her off her middle of the night bottle. It's not going so well. I usually end up giving in and giving it to her just so I can go back to bed! Anyone have any suggestions? I really wanted to have her sleeping through the night before Paul came home but I don't see that happening. Bedtime is actually getting worse with her, not better. She used to fall asleep taking her bottle, and I could put her in her crib, pay her butt for a minute, and she was out. Same thing if she woke up during the night. But now she's still awake when she finishes her bottle, and when I put her in her crib, she screams. I usually end up going back in and rocking her till she's asleep, then putting her in her crib. But half the time she pops back up as soon as I put her in the crib and I end up standing there forever patting her butt to get her back asleep. Same in the middle of the night, only I have MUCH less patience for her games then, and she often takes over an hour to get her back to sleep. That's what we're doing right now, and why I am still awake and blogging at almost 12:30 at night. She woke up at 10:45 and has just now fallen back asleep. I went back in twice to try rocking/patting her and both times she'd pop back up as soon as she hit the crib! After standing at the crib patting her for 15 minutes the second time I gave up and came back out here, that was at 11:45. She screamed for almost a half hour before FINALLY falling asleep. That just breaks my heart. It's so hard to sit here and not go in, but she was pissing me off tonight. But it's harder in the middle of the night to let her scream when she's standing there looking at me laying in my bed. I really can't take it then. Anyone have any ideas on getting her to sleep through the night? HELP!

Here's some pics from Gabe's birthday party....

Playing in the climbing stuff with Brooke

Playing in the ball pit!

Going up the climbing wall

Getting ready to blow out candles.....

And here's a close up of little miss Kylie with her pierced ears!

From bad to....Worse?

2008-03-23T23:14:00.002-04:00

Well, Kylie got over the stomach flu pretty quickly. Then Gabe got it Friday. He started throwing up about 6:00 Friday evening, and finally stopped about 1:00 in the morning, and was fit as a fiddle the next day. Not too bad, all things considered. That same night, Kylie started with a cold. Her nose was really runny and she was coughing alot. She was up every half hour from midnight through 4:30 am when I realized she had a temp of 103. So I gave her Tylenol and she finally slept. We all slept off and on on Saturday. And for the most part are recovered today. Kylie's till got a nose that is just pouring snot all day long, YUCK! And a nasty cough. So we've started using the nebulizer again. We'll see if that helps. And she's had a temp off and on, but nothing serious this time. I just hope they we're all better soon. I'm REALLY tired of dealing with sick people, myself included! We still made the rounds today for Easter. Wow, did my kids make out! Gabe got to have 4 different egg hunts, counting the one at our house! They each got like 7 Easter baskets filled with candy/toys/stuffed animals/clothes/etc.... I think Gabe's favorite by far was his finger skateboards from Wen-Wen! Kylie got a couple really cute outfits and some adorable stuffed animals! All in all it was a pretty good Easter all around. I hope all of you had a fun filled holiday! Happy Easter!

Can't Catch a Break!

2008-03-19T22:46:00.003-04:00

Well, it seems like the fun never ends around here! Kylie's fever finally broke Sunday night, and hasn't gone back up since. We were finally in the clear. I went to work, the kids went to daycare, things were good. Then today happened.... Kylie started throwing up, once here once there....thought she was just kinda choking on something. Then it really started! She was throwing up over and over, only there was nothing in her belly to come up. The poor child would heave and her tummy would clench and the only thing that would come up was phlegm. It was nasty. Then she's fall asleep, because this all happened during nap time! She finally seemed to calm down, and started playing. I gave her a little bit of pedialyte to drink. She fell asleep again. And woke up a little while later puking again! We finally left to come home, and she slept in the car, and then sat and played when we got home. She seemed good again, so I let her try a little more pedialyte, and it stayed down! But not in.... She then started with diarrhea. But I'd MUCH rather deal with that than vomit! Anyday! So, no more puking since we got home, just a few VERY messy diapers. She would play and be happy, then just lay down on the floor and fall asleep for a few minutes. It was actually kinda cute! She's in bed now and has been sleeping rather peacefully. I guess we'll see how the rest of the night goes!

Our Weekend

2008-03-16T23:13:00.002-04:00

We had an OK weekend here this weekend. Kylie's temp was down yesterday morning, after I got up every three hours to give her meds all night, so we got up and went to the FRG Easter Egg Hunt! Gabe had a ball. He loved running after the eggs outside. And they even let the kids dye some eggs. We also had breakfast with the Easter Bunny. Kylie definitely didn't like him, but Gabe actually wasn't afraid of him this year and even took a picture with him! Then we went to Wal-Mart before we headed home. By the time we got home, Kylie's temp was back up again. So I gave her meds and put both kids down for a nap. I would have loved to go to bed too, but figured I'd better take advantage and do some of the chores around the house that I'd been neglecting while she was really sick. She wok up happy, so we had a good evening. She hasn't had much of an appetite this weekend though. I gave her meds at bedtime because her temp was up to 103. I stayed up till11:00 folding laundry and watching a movie, so I could check on her at the three hour mark, just in case. She was nice and cool, so I set my alarm for 2am so I could check her again when the Motrin wore off. I remember the alarm going off, I remember turning it off.....next thing a remember it's 3:45 and I'm thinking, oh crap! Luckily she was still nice and cool. She woke up for a bottle at 6 and was still cool, so we went back to bed. She woke up again at 8:45 so we got up and tried to eat breakfast, but she still didn't want a lot. By 9:45 she was really fussy and acting tired, which totally didn't make sense, she's just woken up! But by 10:00 she was falling asleep on my lap so I gave up. I checked her temp again and it was up to 101 so I gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed. By this time I could barely keep my eyes open (rocking her always makes ME sleepy!) and had a raging headache! So I set the timers on the TV for Gabe, made sure he had a drink and told him to get a lunchable from the fridge if he got hungry, and I went back to bed too, after taking some Tylenol cold and Advil! I woke up when Kylie started crying at 12:45. So we got up and had lunch! She was happy for a while and her temp was down to 99. By 3:00 she was acting sleepy again so I put her down for another nap. I stayed up this time and did some more housework. Gabe was very occupied playing his Wii. He'll play for hours sometimes! She slept until almost 6. And was ready for bed again by 8 or so. Around 8:30 I got her ready for bed and her temp was back up to 102, so I gave her some Motrin before putting her down. Hopefully she'll sleep good tonight because I'm still exhausted, and I plan on trying to go to work tomorrow. I haven't worked in almost 3 weeks now and really need to get back! Besides, we don't want to miss the St. Patrick's Day Party!!! Kylie is definitely doing better. Her temps taking MUCH longer to go up and not getting nearly as high as it was, so hopefully this bug is almost out of her system. Now I'm just PRAYING that Gabe doesn't get it, or I'm really in trouble!

Update on Kylie

2008-03-15T15:57:00.002-04:00

Kylie is slowly starting to get better, I think. Her temp is still up, but it's taking MUCH longer to go up right now. Yesterday, I had to give her meds every three hours, and her temp was still getting to 104 and 105. Today, I gave her meds at 4am. Yes, I was setting my alarm to get up every three hours during the night too. And at 7 when I checked her before giving her meds again, her temp was normal. She didn't start to feel warm until about 12:00 - 12:30. Unfortunately I was in the middle of Wal-Mart at the time. It was about 2:00 by the time I got home and was able to check her temp, and it was up to 104, bit it had been 10 hours since she's had any meds, so hopefully this thing is starting to wind down. I spoke to Paul yesterday, he's still feeling pretty awful. But the funny part is the one thing he DOESN'T have is a fever. Which, coincidentally, is the only thing that Kylie has. I told him that she must have his fever, and he got stuck with everything else!

I HATE Hospitals!

2008-03-13T23:25:00.003-04:00

Especially since I've spent almost 10 out of the last 24 hours in one. Kylie's fever that she had yesterday.... well, but 10:00 last night it had hit 105.4, so MomMom came to stay with the sleeping Gabe and I headed to the ER.. NEVER AGAIN! We were there from 12:30 - 6:30 and we didn't get out of the waiting room until almost 5:00! I spent 4 and a half hours with a 10 month old, who had been running a high fever (it was down after they gave her Motrin at 1:00) in the waiting room with a bunch of other sick people! Not only did everyone who was there when I got then taken back before us, but so was everyone who got there after us! We were literally the only people in the waiting room when they finally took us back. They kept telling me that there was only one doctor and they were waiting for one person to leave so they could free up the bed, but when I went back there were like 4 empty rooms! Then, they checked her ears (I really thought she had an ear infection, but they were clear) and tested for RSV and the flu, both negative, no surprise since other than the high fever she was perfectly fine. So they said it was viral and to alternate Tylonel and Motrin every four hours and sent me home. Well, I gave her Motrin when we got home and we went to bed. My Mom had already taken Gabe to daycare for me! Four hours later her temp was 104, I gave her Tylonel and we went back to bed. THREE hours later her temp was 104 again. By four hours when I could give some more Motrin, it was up to 105.5! So I called the doc again, who wanted her seen. I refused to go back to the ER, but agreed to go to Pediatrics after hours. They did blood work and tested her for a UTI. The UTI was negative, but her white blood count was slightly elevated which they said could be viral or bacterial. So they are running cultures to see if anything bacterial shows up, but they take about 24 hours. In the meantime, they gave her a shot of antibiotics that should last until they get the cultures back and know if she needs something else or if it's viral and has to run it's course. So, I'm clearly not working again tomorrow, which means I'll only have worked 13 hours this paycheck. Kinda sucks! Hopefully we can sleep most of the day tomorrow, because Gabe WILL got to daycare again, even though Kylie and I aren't. On that note...Good Night....

Just an add on....When I woke her up at 2:00am for Motrin, her temp was 106. So I wrapped her up in frozen veggies to bring her temp down while the Motrin kicked in. It's still been up and down all day. Her most recent temp was 105. They're still thinking it could be viral, but the doc also mentioned roseola, but we won't know if it's that until the fever breaks. Hopefully that will be soon. They've also got me alternating Motrin and Tylonel every 3 hours now instead of four, so hopefully that'll help keep it down better... Guess I"m not getting much sleep again tonight if I have to get up every 3 hours to give her meds. Oh well....

In Other News

2008-03-12T21:41:00.002-04:00

Apparently Kylie is sick again too. She's been running an increasingly higher fever through out the afternoon and evening, so we'll see how she does overnight. But we'll be going to the doctor's in the morning. But other than the fever, she's perfectly fine, so I have no clue what's going on! Oh Well....

Paul's back in Iraq

2008-03-12T21:39:00.002-04:00

He called me earlier this evening and let me know that he arrived safely back in Mosul earlier today. Unfortunately, he's also sick! He sounded horrible! He went straight to the doc, and he's taking care of him, so hopefully he'll feel better soon! Start your countdown..... He should be home by May! YEAH!!!!

He's arrived...

2008-03-11T20:03:00.001-04:00

Paul called me a couple hours ago to let me know that he had arrvied safely in Kuwait. He'll be heading out in the next day or so for Mosul and will call when he gets there. Just wanted to make sure everyone knew he was ok.

He's on his way back

2008-03-10T13:24:00.002-04:00

We just recently arrived home from the airport, where we dropped Paul off to head back to Iraq. It was difficult to say goodbye, harder this time than the first. But we did OK. Gabe, so far, is handling it well, no tears or anything else. We'll see how long that lasts. We stayed at the airport until his flight took off. Gabe was so excited to see the plane fly up into the air. We stood at the windows and waved goodbye to Daddy one last time. I didn't cry then, but I'm crying now..... isn't that goofy? Anyway, I will let you all know when he arrives safely back in Iraq. He send his love to all.....

New Pictures

2008-03-03T15:13:00.009-05:00

Last week we went to visit my brother and sister in law, and my new baby niece, Abby. While we were visiting my brother took some family photos for us and I thought I'd share a few of the best ones.... He took almost 80 pictures, so I'm definitely not going to post them all!

And here's a few pictures of Abby!!

Gabe was so excited to be able to hold Abby. He kept giving her kisses, and singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her, just like he does to Kylie!

Unfortunately, Abby slept most of the time we were there :( Not that that stopped me from holding her!

Gabriel's Birthday Party

2008-03-03T14:43:00.008-05:00

Well, yesterday was Gabriel's 5th birthday party. He had a great time. He got to play with his cousins, which is always fun! And he got lots of great presents. It's a toss up for a favorite between the Air Hog helicopter (which Daddy has played with more than Gabe), and the Wii (which Mommy's having fun with too)! He got lots of other great gifts too, including a portable DVD player and a V Smile Pocket, both of which will be great for car rides since he refuses to sleep in the car anymore! He had a great time at his party, and was very sad to see it end. Today has been spent exploring all the new toys. Here are a few picture to enjoy!

Here's Gabe in front of all his presents! He'd been asking ALL DAY to open them so he was very happy when I finally said yes!

Here's Gabe with his cake! In case you couldn't tell we had an Army themed party...go figure!

Here's Kylie, showing off her skills at walking...

Kylie had to get in on the gift opening action!

Some New Firsts For Kylie

2008-02-28T16:26:00.005-05:00

Kylie has been doing lots of new things since Daddy came home. She took to him right away, with no doubts what so ever. The world has revolved around DaDa these days. She is crawling all over the place, usually calling for DaDa. And she's pulling up to stand on everything in sight. He has had her walking with assistance for the first time, and standing alone(briefly) for the first time. He also fed her her first ice cream cone......

She wasn't too sure about this ice cream thing at first.....

But then she took it from Daddy and tried another bite for herself...

And then we were in trouble!!! She definitely decided that she liked it....so much in fact she wouldn't give it back. She would start to give Paul a bite, only to snatch it back at the last minute. It was quite funny!!! She's really going to miss him when he leaves again! We all are.

He's Here!!

2008-02-23T19:06:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that Paul has arrived safe and sound. He's tired, but happy to be home!

He's on his way!!!

2008-02-21T23:11:00.002-05:00

I just spoke briefly to Paul and he is in Kuwait right now! So he's completed the first leg of his trip home. Today they'll have briefings, then hopefully fly out tonight. So, hopefully another day or two and he'll be home!!

Gabriel's Checkup

2008-02-21T23:03:00.002-05:00

Today was a busy day for the birthday boy! We had his 5 year check up this morning...no shots! Yeah! He is now 33lbs, and 42 inches tall. He's still growing, that's a good thing. Otherwise he is doing great. I did discuss with the doctor the side effects that I'm seeing from the medication, the most noticeable being that he has become EXTREMELY sensitive, and cries over almost anything. Last night he cried because dinner wasn't ready when he wanted it! She said that hopefully, that will be a short term effects that will go away as his system gets used to the medicine. And, as expected, the medication is effecting his appetite a bit. I have to push him to eat a good breakfast before he takes the medicine. We have to all but force him to eat lunch. But he's usually pretty hungry by dinner time, so that's good. She said that as long as he eats good at breakfast and dinner, not to stress too much over lunch, as long as he's eating something. We had a little party for him at school today, with donuts for all the kids, and he got some cards and balloons, and a gift from Mommy and Kylie. And everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. Of course he'd been singing his own, it's my birthday song all day! Than after school we had another appointment with the psychologist. He could see a difference in Gabe's focus since the last time he had seen him. He was pleased with how things seem to be going right now. He also said that they sensitivity should be temporary. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! So all is going well! Another year down!

Update on Paul

2008-02-16T19:21:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that Paul is back in Mosul. He saw the dermatologist in Bagdad and they said that it was a bad case of excema. They gave him something for it, and sent him back to Mosul. So, all seems to be well. We're counting down the days now till he's home. I'm guessing about 10!!!

A New Day

2008-02-14T21:43:00.002-05:00

Today was Gabe's first day on the new medicine, and he did really well. All his teachers told me that he did a great job today, and they could notice a difference. I had told Gabe that he needed to take a new medicine and that it would help him to be a better listener and make good choices. He told me in the car on the way home tonight, Mommy that new medicine really helped, I didn't have to go in time out today at all! Hopefully things will continue to go well.
On another note, I feel like I'm a complete zombie right now. Both the kids have had the stomach flu this week, and if I haven't been up in the middle of the night with one, I was up with the other, several times, both at the same time. Sunday night, Gabe was throwing up every half hour for most of the night. So when Kylie started yesterday afternoon, I quickly realized that things were not going to be good through the night. I put her to bed without giving her anything to eat or drink, and she slept for a few hours, but then was up from 12:00 to about 3:00 When I finally caved and gave her a few ounces of pedialyte. Luckily she slept for the rest of the night after that! I don't think I even remember what getting a full night's sleep feels like anymore, it's been so long since I've slept for more than 4 hours at a time. I kinda miss those days!

Kylie's 9 month check up

2008-02-12T19:19:00.000-05:00

Kylie had her 9 month check up today, and she is going great. She is 17lbs and 27 inches now. She's exactly where she should be. We got the ok today to give her any kind of table food now too. This is a good thing, because she really doesn't like to eat baby food anymore. The only way I can get her to eat it at all is to mix it with rice cereal. So, now she can pretty much eat whatever she wants with the exception of shellfish and peanut products. She is doing fantastic. The doctor is very pleased with her progress. She only had to get one shot today, so that wasn't too bad. She's crawling everywhere now, and gets really mad when I try to keep her contained. She seems to think she should have free run of the house at all times! :) I can't wait for Paul to come home and see her. He's going to be shocked at how big she is, and much she has changed. He is doing pretty well. He's in Bagdad right now. They had to send him there to see a dermatologist because they think he might have cirriosis. He's got spots on his hands, elbows, and one on his leg. He should be back in Mosul in a day or two. And should be flying out to come home the end of next week. I know he can't wait to come home and see everybody. I wish you could all have seen and heard Gabe today talking to him on the phone when Daddy told him he'd be home for his birthday party, and had a special present for him. Gabe was so excited, he started squealing and jumping up and down. I SO wish I'd had the video camera going! Oh well.

Update on Gabe

2008-02-07T19:12:00.000-05:00

We visited the psychologist again tonight and got the results of his evaluation. He's definately got ADHD. The doctor showed me the results of the evaluation and he scored a 9 out of 9 on both inattentivness and hyperactivity. This is really not a big surprise to me. So the next step, in addition to continuing with the behavior modification process that we're already working on, is to see the peditrician about starting him on some medication. So, I'm going to talk to her when I'm there for Kylie's 9 month check up on Tuesday. Usually they start with the lowest possible dose, and slowly increase the dosage until we find the one that works for him. I'll keep everyone updated.

She FINALLY....

2008-02-05T21:23:00.000-05:00

CRAWLED!!!! It only took her forever! She'll be 9 months old in four days and she just finally crawled for the first time. But now that she can do, man does she do it! All of a sudden she is into EVERYTHING! And everything is in her mouth! I totally have to go through and baby proof my house again, because she got into a ton of stuff tonight. And Gabe and I had a chat about how it is more important than ever now that he doesn't leave anything on the floor. We'll see how long that lasts. He was so excited when I told him that she crawled. He spent all night at home on the floor trying to get her to crawl to him! I guess next we tackle walking! I think that's going to be a little bit though. She doesn't seem to be that steady on her feet yet. Thank Goodness, because then I will REALLY be in trouble!

Our New Pet

2008-02-03T09:59:00.000-05:00

We got a new pet in our house this week. I was finally convinced to get Gabriel a pet frog. He's very cute, his name is Mr. Ribbits! I wish you could all hear the sounds he makes, it's very strange. He doesn't croak, it almost sounds more like a hoot. He is a firebelly toad actually. We were looking at a green tree frog at first, but The cage for him was WAY to easy access for Gabe. I could just see crickets and frog being let loose all over my house! I think the next pet addition will be some fish for Kylie. She LOVED looking at all the tropical fish in the pet store! Here's a few pictures of Mr. Ribbits!

Apologies

2008-02-03T09:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted on here, but things have been incredibly hectic around here. It seems like there's been something to do everyday lately. We've had very little downtime at home, and when I do, I've been trying to sleep, so I haven't been blogging much. It alos seems like we've been doing the doctor rounds alot lately. Gabe went back to the peditricians for a check up on his ear, and the infection is all cleared up, so that's a good thing. On a down side, Kylie was off the nebulizer for about a week, and then the coughing started again. The doctor listened to her while we were there getting Gabe's ear checked, and said that she sounded clear, but to start the nebulizer again to be safe. It seems to be helping, she's not coughing as much. I also noticed a difference when I skipped the nebulizer one night, she was definately coughing more. We've had a couple of nights where I've barely gotten any sleep because she's been coughing so much, and she's been waking up more often to eat, because she's not taking as much from the bottle right now. She's also decided that she wants very little to do with baby food right now. If I mix it with rice cereal I can usually get her to eat a little bit, but otherwise it's a no-go, so I bought a food chopper and have been chopping up regular food for her. She likes that! Gabe also had his first appointment with the psychologist this week. It went well, Gabe seems to like him and talked to him very easily. Of course, Gabe will talk to anybody, so I guess that's not saying a whole lot. He suspects that Gabe is ADHD and is performing the evaluations do figure this out for sure. This is not surprise to me as I've suspected this for a while. The doctor started us on the first step of a behavior modification program, basically praising Gabe every time I catch him doing anything good. He gets a sticker each time and when he earns enough stickers he gets to do something fun. So far it's been going ok. We've had good days and bad ones, but I have noticed that he's more often doing things the first time I ask, because he gets a sticker if he does that. We'll see how things go. He goes back to see the psychologist again next week. And both kids have got check ups with the peditrician this month. I'm trying to get all that kid of stuff out of the way before Paul comes home so I don't have to try and do any of it while he's here. I have a ton to do to get the house ready for him coming home, including painting my kitchen wall :) So I guess life continues as usual around here. Kylie's got 2 teeth now, but she's still not crawling. She definately gets around though! Just don't ask me to explain how. Gabe is wonderful with her, and it cracks me up to listen to him with her. The other night, she was crying in the car, and he told her, "It's ok baby, don't cry, big brother is here." Isn't that the cutest? He's also very excited about the arrival of his new baby cousin, Joshua Paul. He confuses everyone by talking about his baby brother, Joshua Paul. I constantly have to explain that Joshua is his cousin, not his brother. I know he can't wait to be able to go and see him, but I don't want my sick kids to get near the new baby right now. We're expecting another new baby in the family soon too. We are all anxiously awating the arrival of Abigail Renee, who should be arriving this month. Hang in there Aunt Jen, It'll all be over soon!!!! Then the fun really begins! I'll try post updates a little more often in the future! Here's some new pictures...

My Daughter...the Water Baby????

2008-01-07T20:53:00.000-05:00

Gabe was helping me give Kylie a bath Saturday night, which he loves to do on the rare occasions that she gets a bath before he goes to bed. Since she's started sitting up, I've been taking the reclining seat out of the infant tub when I'm done washing her so she can sit a play. Well, Gabe was rinsing her off, and I had stood up to dry my hands and get her a towel. When he leaned in to pour the water on her belly, she leaned backwards, and promptly slipped underwater! I immediately swooped down and snatched her up and stood her up in the tub. She gave a huge, head to toe shiver, and then....laughed!!! No crying, no coughing, no sputtering, just laughed!! Gabe STILL doesn't like to have water on his face! She is just too much!

A Day of Firsts

2008-01-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

Today was a big day for my baby girl....She cut her first tooth...FINALLY!!! She figured out how to get from laying on her belly to sitting up all by herself for the first time. And she tried using a sippy cup for the first time today. She did more chewing on it than drinking, but hey, it was still the first time she used one! Now if she would just start crawling.......

Holiday Pictures

2008-01-01T21:14:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures from our holidays!

Here's Gabe throwing out magic reindeer food, hoping to entice the reindeer to stop at our house.

Kylie playing with the tissue paper from a gift, and having fun!
Gabe sees all the presents under the tree!
Kylie playing in her new bouncer toy!
One of Gabe's favorite gifts, a Harley shirt from Daddy.
Kylie "opens" one of her gifts, a blanket made by Mommy.
Gabe plays with his Army dress up set from MomMom and PopPop.
Gabe talking to Daddy on the phone at Aunt Wendy's house.

Kylie playing on the floor with Pop.

A picture of the three of us from Christmas Day.

Happy Holidays

2008-01-01T20:57:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted on here sooner, we've been crazy busy, and I was having trouble accessing the website for a little while. I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and a fun New Year. Everything was great here. Santa was VERY good to the kids, and they got lots of wonderful presents. Gabe had a great time opening all his gifts, and loved all of them! Lots of toys and games and clothes for him, books too! Kylie especially had a good time with the gift wrap and bags! I'm sure she'll be a little more into the actual presents next year. But she got some cute toys and a lot of great clothes! We had a good time New Years Eve at Renee's house with all the gang. Gabe of course had a blast playing with Josh and Brenden and Sean and the other kids! Kylie just loved all the attention she got too! We all slept in today and had a much needed very lazy day at home. None of us even got dressed today. :) The only down side to our holiday was that Kylie had been sick... AGAIN! She started with a cold the week before Christmas, and the Friday before I took her to the doctor's to have her cough checked out, because it sounded nasty. They told me to give her nebulizer treatments before bed. By the day after Christmas, she was no better, and in fact, sounded worse, so I called the doctor again, and they upped her nebulizer treatments to 3 times a day. Then Friday morning she work up with a fever of 102, so we headed to the doctor's again. They added a steroid to her nebulizer twice a day and put her on Zithromax. Then, Friday night she spiked a fever of 104.5, so, after a phone call to the doctor, we headed to the hospital. Luckily, Heather was kind enough to come to my house and stay with Gabe so I didn't have to wake him up and drag him with me too. Several hours later they concluded that she had a viral infection, basically a mild case of RSV. They told us to keep up with the nebulizer treatments prescribed by the doctor, and we just have to let the virus run it's course. Well, she's continued to run a low fever since then, usually around 99.8-100.9 but occasionally going as high ans 102.2 again. And she still sounds pretty congested, so we might be calling the doctor again before the week is out, we shall see. At least this time we were able to head off the awful diarrhea that she gets from the Zithromax, so that was a good thing. Hopefully, things will get better soon.
As I look back on 2007, it was a mixed year for us. We were blessed with the birth of our beautiful baby girl, only to have it closely followed but Paul's deployment, which has been very hard for us all. I can only hope that 2008 will bring with it more blessings and less heartache. And I hope each and every one of you enjoys health and happiness in the year to come.

Thank You

2007-12-29T18:49:00.000-05:00

Iwant to thank everyone who sent me Christmas box's they really made it feel like Christmas here cause I came back on Christmas Day and I had all these packages and it made it feel real the only thing missing was all of you guys Thanks again Love you all

Paul

Christmas Eve Poem

2007-12-24T17:48:00.000-05:00

This poem was written by one of my soldiers and read over our net as we where leaving the wire on Christmas Eve it touched a cord in all of us and I hope it will for you! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!!

Written By SPC Raymond Brazil Co C 1/175th INF (L) OIF 7/8

It's Christmas Eve in case you did'nt know
But no one told us poor little joe's
Patrols and convoys they will roll
Gunfire and mortors they will expolde
No chimneys for stockings
No piano side song
Just a rifle and helmet
And a road to long
With Mosque after mosque
Blaring Haji's song
No reindeer on rooftops
No gifts or tree
But the gift of the a night
With no trouble of enemy
With a cold cup of coffee
And a stale cigarette
We meet with our brothers
Who are also in this mess
With a tear in our eye
And a lump in our throat
We laugh and we tease
And we even joke
Of a Christmas long ago
And those yet to come
And we pray to the Lord God
This will be a safe one

December Update

2007-12-23T09:34:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged. Things have been CRAZY hectic, and there's been very little time. So I thought I'd take to opportunity to update what we've been doing this month. WARNING!!! thing is probably going to be a long post!! LOL! We started out December with the Family Readiness Group's Christmas party. It was a great day. Gabe had a ball. Snata made a visit, and both kids got huge stockings filled with gifts! Kylie LOVES the little stuffed polar bear that she got, and plays with (Chews on) him everyday! After the party NaNa and Pop went with us to Build a Bear Workshop and helped the kids make Rudolph and Clarice. We also made a special bear to send to Daddy for Christmas. This was lots of fun for Gabe too. He got to make all three because Kylie slept through the entire thing! She'd had a LONG day! The next weekend we went to MomMom's house to bake Christmas cookies. Another long day. We were baking cookies from about 10 in the morning until almost 6 at night. But it was fun! Gabe had to get involved in every step of the cookie making process. We made a LOT od cookies that day! The the next weekend was time for decorating. Saturday we decorated the house, and Sunday MomMom and PopPop and Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen came up and we got our tree, and decorated it. It's a very nice tree if I do say so myself! :) Gabe was excited because Uncle Mike burned a fire for us. It was pretty yucky when we went to get the tree. It was VERY muddy, and they didn't have many trees left, but we still got a nice one. And got covered in mud in the process. Then, about 2 hours after everyone left, our power went out! When out power goes out, I can't do anything! We have an electric stove, so can't cook. I have no heat. And because we're on a well, I also have no water! That means we can't flush the toilets! When I called to report the outage, the recording said they were experiencing widespread outages and it could be dyas before it came back on! So, we packed up and went to MomMom's house for the night. It was a rough night, and no one got much sleep, but at least we were all warm and could go to the bathroom! Whe I got home from work on Monday the power was back on, YEAH! And I even managed to prime the water pump by myself this time, so we had water again! Santa came to visit the kids at school this past Thursday. Both kids got to sit on his lap, and both got gifts. Gabe got a bag full of goodies. Kylie got a little fish toy. But we didn't open hers until we got home that night. Gabe "helped" her unwrap it. It was wrapped in the metallic plastic foil type paper, that's not really paper so it doesn't rip. She could have cared less about the gift. She had a BALL with the wrapping paper. Her and Gabe played with it for like half an hour. I even saved it. In fact, she's playing with it right now! Yesterday, we went to MomMom's house to help them decorate their Christmas tree. On the way there we stopped by MeMaw's house because she had a prize for Gabe. It was a HUGE stuffed horse! It's big enough that he can ride it! He was very excited! And he's having a ball riding it all over the house! Today, we're actually spending the day at home, which is a goot thing, because I still have a few gifts to make, and a bunch to wrap! I also had both the kids at the doctor's on Friday. We've all had colds for a while. I'm finally starting to feel better. But Gabe had been sick for about a month, and his cough was getting so bad it was keeping him up and night, and he was coughing so hard he was throwing up. Gabe is very prone to bronchitis. He usually gets it 6-8 times each winter. Last year he had his tonsils and adniods removed. He still got bronchitis alot, but he wasn't sick in between like he used to be. This year the doctor started him on singular. We haven't had bronchitis yet. I can usually tell by the sound of his cough when he has it, and this didn't sound like bronchitis to me, but he'd been sick for a month. Kylie had had a runny nose for over a week, and wednesday started coughing. And when she was sleeping she sounded a little wheezy, and her cough was starting to sound bark-like. Last time she sounded like that she had bronchiolitis and had to be on antibiotics and nebulizer treatments. So, since the holiday was coming, and I wouldn't be able to take them for a while if things got worse, I decided to head to the doctors to have it checked out. Gabe actually doesn't have bronchitis, but they put him on antibiotics because he's been sick for so long. So it's more than just allergies. Kylie's lungs were clear, she's just really congested. They refilled my prescription for the nebulizer meds and tole me I could use it as I felt she needed it. I can tell she's not feeling well, because she's been very fussy and sleeping a lot more than usual. Hopefully she'll be in a good mood for Christmas. I think that's the general overview of our month so far! I hope you all have a fantastic holiday! Merry Christmas!

MomMom and Kylie with her balloon candy cane

Rudolph, Clarice and Daddy's Bear

Our Christmas Tree

Kylie and Santa

Gabe and Santa

Hello All

2007-12-13T07:43:00.000-05:00

Hello all, I would like to thank everyone for the packages and letters that I keep receiving it means alot to me!! I will miss everyone this Christmas and New Years but I and my Soldiers know that we are in everyone's thoughts and prayers.

During this Christmas Season I ask please that while you are with your families PLEASE say a Prayer for the Soldiers, Sailors, Airman, and Marines that put themselves in harms way so the others don't have to.

What's New...

2007-12-05T22:13:00.000-05:00

Kylie is getting big so fast. It never ceases to amaze me! She has a few new accomplishments. She waves...kinda. It's usually a random gesture, and not related to someone one saying hello or goodbye. But occasionally if you wave at her and say hi, she'll imitate. Usually she's just waving for no reason, but it's very cute. She does this little slow motion wave of her hand and fingers...It's hard to explain. She's also started babbling in intelligible sounds.... namely mom and Dada. Mom comes out when she cries. It's adorable, like she's crying for me. Dada seems to be a little more intentional. I always put her to bed with her daddy doll at night, and turn in on before I leave to room, so he can tell her goodnight. Well, the other night after I left the room, I can hear her through the monitor ... "Dada...Dada...Dada" And when I snuck in, she was talking to her daddy doll. I've heard her do it a few other times at night, but never when she doesn't have daddy nearby...so who knows?
Gabriel has been a real handful this week. I think this might be the worst he's been so far. I've had several conversations with Santa, and he's seriously considering putting Gabriel on his naughty list! Rudolph has been checking in on him quite often to see if he's behaving. But he rarely sees him being a good listener! Gabriel is also bald at the moment! I had to completely buzz his head the other night! He had cut random chunks of hair out of his head with a pair of scissors! The only way to fix it was to totally buzz his head. And school pictures are tomorrow! YEAH!!!
I'm totally stressing out over the whole holiday thing right now. Is it just me? I feel like I have SO much to do! I still haven't decorated my house, at all! I think I'm going to have to go do a little shopping Friday night after work, because I have no idea when else I'll be able to go! Saturday we're going to my mom's to bake cookies. Sunday I need to finish all Paul's stuff and get it packed up so I can get it in the mail on Monday. Next Saturday Gabriel has a birthday party of all things, and Sunday we're decorating our tree here, with help from MomMom, PopPop, Uncle Mike, and Aunt Jen. I still have to wrap all my gifts! And some how manage to keep up with all the regular housework, which I haven't been doing a very good job of lately! Oh, and go to work everyday! What I'd give for a day off with no kids! Of course, I'd probably spend it sleeping, and still get nothing done! LOL I'm beyond exhausted right now, and not feeling well is certainly not helping! Ok, I feel better now, I just needed to vent! Is anyone else out there stressing about the holidays this year?

Oops...BIG OOPS!

2007-12-01T23:18:00.000-05:00

Ok, My husband has always told me that I'm the dumbest smart person that he knows (nice, right?) Well, unfortunately, I have proven him to be correct. Thursday my friend Heather and I were working on a project for the FRG Christmas Party. We were painting a large Christmas tree on a sheet, that we would then have the kids put their handprint on as ornaments at the party. Well, we got the tree drawn, and started painting. About halfway through, I looked at Heather and said " I think the paint might be bleeding through." She suggested we check, but we had all the sides of the sheet tacked down, so I didn't bother. Besides, even if it was, it was too late to do anything about it, right? But my curiousity finally got the best of me, and I checked, and sure enough the paint was bleeding through. Too late now, might as well finish. So we did. Here is our finished project....

Here is what was left after we removed the sheet....

Did I mention that the sheet was hanging on my kitchen wall when we painted it???? OOPS!!!

Paul, At least there will still be a Christmas tree in the house when you come home on leave! Maybe I'll even let Gabe paint some decorations on it. What do you think? Love ya Babe!

Just Checkin In

2007-11-25T20:56:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody. I haven't posted in a while, so I figured I'd write a little. Things have been pretty busy with the holiday and all. Being home for 4 days straight has really screwed up Kylie's schedule. She's been pretty cranky the last few days, especially today. I've pretty much had to hold her all day, or she'd scream, starting at 6:00 this morning! But the good news is that I FINALLY found the time to clean up Gabe's playroom!!! You can actually find the floor now! I'm very excited about that. I'd planned on putting up some Christmas decorations today. I managed to get the boxes up from the basement, but that's about all. Guess that one will have to wait for another day. We discovered on Thanksgiving that Kylie doesn't like my brother's dogs! Every time she would see one of them she would start crying...EVERY TIME! Other than that we had a good holiday. Gabe was well behaved. So that was good! Paul is doing well. We all got to talk to him on Thanksgiving, so that kind of made every body's day! I know he misses everyone, and can't wait to come home! I hope all of you had a good holiday!!!

It only took us about 10 times to get a good picture, but at least we finally got one!

Kylie fell asleep like this while I was feeding her. She was awake one bite, then asleep the next!

Fundraiser

2007-11-13T23:23:00.000-05:00

OK, the Family Readiness Group for Paul's unit is selling cookbooks as a fundraiser for our group. The cookbook has about 450 recipes in it and is selling for $10. Recipes were submitted by family members of the soldiers from all of the companies in Paul's Battalion. As of now, we're expecting the cookbooks to be delivered to the unit on December 17. If anyone is interested in purchasing one, please let me know! Thanks so much!

6 Month Check-Up

2007-11-13T23:10:00.000-05:00

Well, Kylie had her six month check up today. The good news is that she is doing great, and right on target for where she should be. She is up to 15lbs 2oz and 25 1/2 inches! She is in the 40th% for weight, and 50th% for height! Perfect! The bad news is that, once again, she has a horrible cold, and I had a horrible day...She's hardly eaten at all today. She had a bottle at 4:30 in the morning, then refused to take one before we left for the doctor's at 7:30. When we got home around 10:30, she tried to take one, but was so stuffed up she couldn't manage, and got all worked up and screaming instead. So finally, around 1:00 I put some saline drops in her nose, cleaned her nose out, gave her some benedryl, then hit the bathroom. She finally took a few ounces while we were sitting in the steaming bathroom. She followed that up with a 2 1/2 hour nap, (and I actually got the chance to take a bath!) and, THANK GOD, was in a better frame of mind after she woke up. She's been eating a little better since then, but still not nearly as much as she should be. I hope this one runs its course quicker than the last one. We still haven't gotten back to sleeping through the night from the last time she was sick. You have no idea what I'd give for a solid night's sleep! If it's not one kid than it's the other waking me up! Kylie had a really bad night Friday night, and I forgot to take my Tylenol PM, so I got practically no sleep. When Kylie finally woke up around 7 am, I took her to the living room and put her in the exosaucer next to Gabe. I told him to come get me if she started crying and went back to bed!! Pretty bad, huh? I got to stay in bed till 8 though! Well, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!